


Ever, the Now

by jtperfecthair



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto)-centric, Fluff and Humor, More tags will be added later, because im weak, hints of team 7 ot3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-03-01 03:12:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13285737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jtperfecthair/pseuds/jtperfecthair
Summary: Naruto would very much like to argue that time travel isn't something that anyone would expect, even from an unknown seal activated by a desperate missing-nin in the middle of the ruins of Uzushio.Team 7 time travel AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Back at it again with the time travel AU's. Who knows, maybe I'll actually get further than 8 chapters with this one lmao
> 
> So, I've always loved time travel AU's in general, especially ones from the Naruto universe, and I've been debating with myself for quite some time whether to actually try my hand at one or not. I finally decided to say "screw it" and give it a go, and hopefully it won't turn out too badly.
> 
> (I'm so sorry, Time Is On Our Side readers. I swear I'm trying to work up the inspiration for the next chapter. I'll get there eventually. Hopefully.)
> 
> A few things I wanted to say, though, is that this is definitely an AU, even more so than the whole time travel concept implies. Basically, I'm ignoring most of what's shown in the final few chapters and beyond, because I don't really agree with it.
> 
> These things will be:
> 
> 1) Most canon pairings. If you ship them, hey, more power to you. I just don't. I won't rag on any of them, I promise, but I also won't be including them. (Except for Asuma and Kurenai, Minato and Kushina, and probably hints of Shikamaru and Temari later on). I'll probably be hinting a lot towards team 7 ot3 (I'm weak, okay?) but I doubt I'll ever actually explicitly make it a thing, unless a lot of you actually want me to. Another pairing I'm weak for is Hinata and Kiba, which I'll probably end up hinting towards a lot without even meaning to, so be aware of that, too.
> 
> 2) Pretty much anything that happens in Boruto. I don't watch/read it at all, so I have no idea what's going on in it and therefore won't be applying it to this fic.
> 
> 3) Sasuke leaving the village after the war. I know there was a reason for it or whatever but, yeah, no.
> 
> 4) If I'm being honest, I haven't actually read/watched Naruto since the last chapter of the manga came out. And even then, I wasn't really paying as much attention as I maybe should've been? It's just, the Madara fight and then the Kaguya fight went on forever. And it's really hard to keep up your enthusiasm when you're reading something chapter by chapter over such a long period of time. And honestly? I don't have the time or the desire to go back and read through all of it again right now. So, I might end up getting a few things wrong. (Or I might just be changing them because I didn't agree with it in the first place and this is my fic and idgaf). So, yeah, apologies in advance for that and feel free to point it out to me if it really means that much to you.
> 
> If you're still interested and willing to read on regardless of all that, thanks! I'm writing this story mostly for fun and it probably won't ever be my top priority, so I apologize in advance for sporadic updates. And I hope that some of you will like what I have to give!

_"It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now." ~_ George Harrison

.

* * *

.

It wasn't even supposed to be a difficult mission, which was the  _entire point._

Tsunade had honestly been waiting for it when the four members of the original Team 7 filed into her office, the expressions on their faces ranging from fond exasperation to almost pleading, and she barely managed to hold in her sigh and not rub at her temples.

It wasn't a surprise, given the fact that in little over a week Hatake Kakashi would be officially named Konoha's new Hokage, a position that he was only very,  _very_  grudgingly accepting, and only because he'd been thoroughly guilt-tripped and blackmailed into it. Which definitely wasn't the kind of reaction Tsunade had been thinking of when naming her successor, back when she'd accepted the position herself. Of course, she'd been expecting to hand the hat off to a sunshine blond with a bright smile who'd been dreaming of obtaining it his entire life, not a recalcitrant, socially-awkward and emotionally-stunted pervert, but, well...

She didn't really have the room to be choosey at the moment. She'd been able to keep hold of the title for over a year now, but she'd begun to wear incredibly thin. The war took a lot out of her and she was feeling her age more now than she ever had before. And while she could handle the paperwork, could handle handing out missions and giving orders, she wasn't in any position to defend her village anymore, not like she was supposed to. A Kage was meant to be their village's best defense, the strongest and most capable of defending their people, and right now, that wasn't Tsunade.

And as much as she would absolutely  _love_  to pass the hat onto Naruto that very moment, he just wasn't ready for it. He was getting there, now that his time wasn't being devoured by trying to drag his teammate back while also fighting against S-ranked terrorist organizations and participating in a war that spanned over the entire Elemental Nations, but he wasn't quite there yet. And he knew it just as well as she did.

She'd even asked him, during a quick lunch one day when he'd stopped by to drop off his latest mission report, if he was upset that she hadn't nominated him for consideration. If she had, it likely would have gone uncontested. He, along with his teammates, were the saviors of the Fourth War, the ones who had faced off against Madara and Kaguya back to back and somehow come out on top. Not only that, but he was on speaking terms with multiple Kage and other high ranking shinobi across the nations. He was their village's darling, loved by everyone, and not a single person would have complained if she'd selected him.

He hadn't been upset, though, had understood completely. He was strong, stronger than most, but that wasn't all that made someone a Kage. And he'd learned firsthand during the war that just because he was powerful didn't mean he was ready for that kind of responsibility. He would be, eventually, would work hard for it like he always had until he reached that goal, but it was okay if it took a bit longer. He'd never been one to shy away from hard work before, after all, and he wasn't ever going to give up.

Which had really only left Tsunade with a single option: Kakashi. He seemed to have realized this just as soon as she had, and then had disappeared for a week. (She suspected a henge was involved, though she couldn't be entirely certain seeing as how he'd never revealed his face to anyone before, because he definitely hadn't left the village.) After he'd finally been dragged back into her office by a very haggard and unimpressed Sakura, he'd commenced listing every reason for why it was a terrible idea while throwing out other candidates that she should consider.

All of which was a complete waste of time, of course, since she'd already thought through all of her options carefully. Something she knew he was aware of, and that he was just desperately attempting to hold off the inevitable.

Finally, though, he'd been forced to admit defeat, though it took another week of prodding. He was clearly unhappy, and proceeded to spend the majority of his time sulking, but he was also loyal to his village above everything else and knew just how important this was. He'd do it, but he'd drag his feet about it the entire way.

Which brought them to now.

She knew what Kakashi was going to ask for before he even slouched forward to stand before her desk.

Each of them had been busy since the end of the war. Sakura had dived head-first into the hospital, when she wasn't working on groundbreaking limb prosthetic designs with the help of several from the R&D department, whipping it into shape in such a way that definitely made Tsunade proud and that had even veteran medic-nin giving the girl their utmost respect. Sasuke had had to be thoroughly vetted, after his betrayal of the village and then subsequent spiral into insanity, and then he'd been put on probation before swiftly being absconded into ANBU once his loyalty had been established once more. Naruto had been bouncing between departments, taking the time to familiarize himself with each, even if he had no hope of contributing to their efforts, while also shadowing Tsunade from time to time and taking missions whenever he could. Kakashi himself had been stuck filling out paperwork and preparing for his upcoming promotion to leader of a Hidden Village.

And so this was Kakashi coming to beg, in his own way, for one last taste of freedom before he became shackled to the very desk she was now sitting at and, through that, to paperwork and responsibility. All he wanted was one last hurrah as Team 7 before they lost their chance.

And Tsunade hadn't minded, not really. She'd been planning on sending Naruto out on a mission anyway, to deal with a couple of missing-nin that had apparently been foolish enough to use the ruins of Uzushio as their base, both because the blond was technically the Head of the Uzumaki clan, for all that there were only two known members currently living, and that he'd been studying fuuinjutsu for the last few months and, besides herself and Hatake, was the closest thing to a Seal Master that they had.

Reports had claimed that the missing-nin consisted of mostly chunin, with only a jounin or two thrown in the mix, and so she'd been planning to send Naruto alone. But if she was going to be sending her successor out on a mission, especially so close to her freedom, then she'd be damned if it was a mission that was anything but pathetically easy, and for four of the strongest shinobi alive, the Heroes of the Fourth Shinobi War, that was exactly what this mission was.

It was supposed to be  _easy_. There were supposed to be no complications and it should've taken them only a few days at the longest, most of which was just travel time.

Of course, it was Tsunade's own fault for not remembering that this was  _Team 7_  and, with them, no mission stayed simple for long.

.

* * *

.

Naruto could admit, if only to himself, that he should've seen this coming.

One of the reasons this mission had been handed to him, after all, was that he was one of the rare few who could even hope to avoid any wayward seals laying about the ruins of Uzushio. Because they were everywhere, in almost every line of sight, and he didn't know if the missing-nin had been able to avoid them this long because they had fuuinjutsu training or because they had a lot of dumb luck. He was thinking it was most likely the latter but wasn't about to completely rule out the former.

The information they'd been given was mostly correct, in that the majority of the group consisted of chunin, with two jounin who were clearly the leaders. They'd set up their camp in what looked to have once been a town square and, while they had a guard rotation set up, were all pretty relaxed, clearly thinking they were safe where they were.

Which wasn't an unfair assumption. Not many people, shinobi included, were brave enough to walk into the ruins of Uzushio. The people here had been wiped out because of fear for the power and skill they had, skill which was readily apparent anywhere one looked, and it was never a good idea to not look before you leaped when seals were involved. Because of that, none had ever come here for looting purposes before, the danger far outweighing the payout, at least until now.

And Naruto couldn't deny that it had him fighting against the urge to bare his teeth and snarl a bit. Because, yeah, Konoha was his home and his village and, yeah, he'd never met any of the people who'd died here, wouldn't know any of their names or faces or dreams, but they'd still been his  _family_. This place had been his mom's first home. If it hadn't been destroyed the way it had, it could've been a second home to him, too.

And even beyond his own personal ties to the place, he believed quite firmly that the dead deserved to rest in peace. If the Fourth War had taught the world nothing else, it should've at least taught it that.

And so, yes, Naruto was a bit more angry than he usually got on missions now-a-days, a bit more impatient to kick some ass and take some names. And, yes, it may have made him a bit more careless, a bit more likely to revert to bad habits than was safe in a place like this and so, technically, what happens could, possibly, be considered his fault.

He wouldn't ever admit it, though, no matter how much Kurama poked fun at him for it.

The whole thing goes off without a hitch, at first. Naruto keeps an eye on their path, keeps them from triggering any nasty seal traps, and they wait until the sun is sinking low behind them, hopefully limiting their target's visibility and making their approach easier to hide, before launching themselves forward at their opponents.

The first six go down before the rest even really know what's happening. The jounin are the first to react, of course, engaging with Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke respectively while also attempting to shout out orders to the others. They don't really get the chance, though, since they're mowed down fairly quickly while he and Sakura continue to make their way through the rest.

He's not paying as much attention as he should and he knows it, focusing only on taking these nin down and getting them out of these ruins as quickly as he can. And so he doesn't see the young and desperate chunin, the last of them left alive, that launches himself at a seal that's been etched into the ground at the edge of the clearing, only has time to turn as he hears Sakura shout a warning, barely gets a look at the seal itself before the guy is slapping his bloodied hand against it.

He braces himself, expecting it to misfire and explode.

He isn't expecting for the world to twist and warp alarmingly, or for the ground to seemingly give way beneath him.

He isn't expecting what feels like a hook to the gut and to be  _yanked_ , mercilessly, and contorted and stretched and pulled in ways he's fairly certain shouldn't be possible.

He isn't expecting Kurama to snarl, to snap, to begin yelling obscenities and threats.

He isn't expecting to feel like he's catching on fire while simultaneously slamming into solid concrete before his world finally, thankfully, goes dark.

He sure as  _hell_  isn't expecting time travel but, well, he's pretty sure that nobody ever expects  _that_.


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing Naruto does when he regains consciousness is go into his mindscape to confer with Kurama.

Okay, so the  _first_  thing he does is completely panic, seeing as how he's currently a  _twelve-year-old_. And when he says ' _go into_ ' what he really means is ' _dragged into once Kurama loses his patience_ '.

Same thing, really.

"What the hell is going on?!" He screeched, flailing his arms around. The fox was sitting on the other side of the cavern, chin resting on folded arms and watching Naruto pace back and forth, looking torn between amusement and annoyance. "Why am I sitting in what looks like my old apartment, you know, the one that was  _destroyed by Nagato_? Better yet, why do I look like I'm  _twelve_?! What even happened?"

"What do you think happened, idiot?" Kurama scoffed. "Obviously, the seal transported your soul, and me along with it, through time and dumped us into your younger self."

"Oh,  _obviously_ ," Naruto threw his arms up, tone dripping with sarcasm, "time travel, why didn't I think of that? Surely, it should have been my first guess, seeing as how it's  _impossible to do!_ "

"Clearly not, or we wouldn't be in this mess."

"How do you know that's what happened? This could just be a really good genjutsu, you know!"

"You think that hadn't occurred to me, you hairless monkey? Of course it did! One of the first things I did was disrupt your chakra just to be sure!"

Naruto drew in a breath, about to start yelling back once more, before suddenly slumping. It wasn't Kurama's fault, and yelling about it wasn't going to fix anything.

"Time travel, though?" He asked, and couldn't quite keep the despondence out of his voice. "Really?"

It wasn't that he'd never thought about it before, especially once he'd begun learning fuuinjutsu theory. Because as far as sealing was concerned, your imagination was the limit, and Naruto had that in spades. All he needed was the skill and the knowledge to match, and while he hadn't been anywhere near knowing enough to even  _start_  on something like that, he was also soaking up lessons like a sponge, something Tsunade-baa-chan had pointed out with a wistful smile and a comment about him living up to his Uzumaki name.

And he'd thought it out, really,  _truly_  thought it out, the way he rarely used to do with anything. Because if he could go back in time, he could save  _so many people_. Ero-sennin, Neji, Itachi, Konan and Nagato, Asuma-sensei, Jiji, hell, maybe even Obito. He could try to save Sasuke, too, give him more of a reason to stay in the village. If he went back far enough, he could even save Zabuza and Haku, the ones who'd given him so much inspiration to fulfill his dream and to get stronger, to protect those precious to him.

But, at the same time, things had turned out good. Or, at least, as good as they could've, all things considered. They'd defeated Akatsuki, they'd defeated Madara and, after all of that, they'd defeated Kaguya, too. The nations had come together, had fought side by side in a way they'd never done before. Strong alliances had been made and every country was working harder than ever before in actually keeping them.

Maybe he hadn't found the true peace that Jiraiya had talked about, that his father had dreamed about, but he'd gotten pretty damn close and he wasn't about to do anything to put that in jeopardy.

And now, with the activation of one seal, all of that was gone. The deaths, yes, but all the progress, too.

"Yeah, kit," the Kyuubi rumbled out, voice gentle in a way no one would've thought possible even just a year ago, and yet, "time travel. That was what the pulling sensation was, the seal taking hold and yanking you out of your body, through the rivers of time, and dumping you into this one."

"And the feeling like I'd caught on fire?" When silence met his question, Naruto began to get a very bad feeling. "Kurama?"

"That was your soul overwriting the one that originally inhabited this body," the fox admitted reluctantly as Naruto gaped, horrified.

"Are you telling me," he demanded, slowly, "that I basically just killed my younger self?"

"You didn't  _kill_  him. More like... absorbed him."

" _That is not helping!_ " Naruto shrieked, hands fisting into his hair desperately.

"I'm not seeing the problem here," the Kyuubi admitted, rolling its massive eyes. "Your younger soul wouldn't have even felt a thing. The only reason  _you_  felt anything was because yours was the one doing the absorbing. He's still alive, he's just a part of you now."

The blond groaned, dragging his hands down his face as he despaired, "That's so creepy."

"Whatever, just move on. You're back in time, you're in your younger body, there's nothing you can do about that. What you can do is check up on those teammates of yours. I'm fairly certain all three of them also got caught up in the seal and are also here in this time."

Having said his piece, the fox shut his eyes, clearly done with this entire conversation. He'd gotten a lot better at the whole ' _civil interaction_ ' thing but he was still a centuries-old manifestation of chakra who'd spent the last hundred years locked away behind seals with no one to talk to. It was a work in progress.

Naruto sighed but did as suggested, leaving his mindscape before Kurama could get annoyed and  _throw_  him out, which he'd done in the past. And really, he couldn't deny the relief he felt at knowing he wasn't going to be here all by himself. He didn't know what he'd have done if he got stuck with the younger versions of everyone he'd ever known and was the only one alive who remembered the war.

Once he opened his eyes to his old, empty, trashed apartment once more, he immediately folded his legs and sat absolutely still, drawing nature chakra to himself and stretching his senses out as he did. His team's chakra signatures were easy to locate, though each one was located in a different part of the village.

Kakashi-sensei was at their old training ground, likely having been standing by the memorial stone when they'd come back. Sasuke was at the Uchiha compound and Sakura felt like she was at home, the house her family had lived in before it'd been destroyed with the rest of Konoha in Pein's attack. He wasn't all that worried about them, since he was fairly sure they were each smart enough to put the pieces together, even if they didn't have a demon in their gut to spell it out through their denial for them.

Still, it'd make him feel a hell of a lot better to be able to see them, and talk to them, and  _know_  without a doubt that they really were his teammates, despite all evidence pointing towards this already being true.

With that thought in mind, and feeling that Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke seemed to already be moving in his direction while Sakura was definitely moving about and would likely be arriving soon enough, Naruto hopped up from his bed, stepping over the hole in the floor covered by open scrolls with the ease of long practice, and headed for his closet to get dressed.

He was met with orange. A  _lot_  of orange.

He was still extremely fond of the color and always would be, but even he could admit that maybe he'd been a bit too zealous as a kid, if this was what he'd been wearing day in and day out.

And it wasn't like it had been that long ago that he'd been wearing a similar outfit. Hell, he'd fought the entirety of the Fourth War in his orange and black jumpsuit. It was only bouncing around the other departments the last few months and being sent on a variety of missions he'd never been on before that had taught him that maybe orange wasn't something his outfit should be completely comprised of.

The looks on his teammate's faces, the first time he'd shown up to one of their joint training sessions dressed in a black and blue ensemble only barely edged with dark orange, had been priceless, at least. It had taken almost an hour and a trip to the Yamanaka flower store before they'd been convinced that he was actually still him, which had just made it even funnier.

Now, though, it looked like he was back to eye-searing orange and blue jumpsuits for the time being.

At least it was nostalgic.

The actual wince when Sasuke caught sight of it while climbing through the window he'd opened for them was pretty great, too.

"I really thought I'd never have to see that monstrosity again," the Uchiha lamented with a sigh.

"I don't know," Naruto said, doing his best to keep his face as innocent as possible, "I kinda missed it. I think I'm gonna wear it all the time."

Sasuke's face hadn't even begun to fully contort into true horror when another presence made itself known, "Maa, maa, Naruto, it's not nice to pick on your teammates."

"Yeah," Sakura agreed, just a step behind their sensei, "besides, even if you were serious, we'd burn the things before you got a chance."

"That's really mean," Naruto pouted, but let it go. They had a point.

"So," Kakashi started, hands tucked into his pockets, as Sakura closed the window behind them. A series of hand seals later, courtesy of Sasuke, and not even ANBU had a hope of eavesdropping on this conversation. "Time travel, huh?"

Sakura squinted up at him. "You are way too happy about this."

"I have no idea what you mean," he returned, voice bland, eye curved in what was obviously meant to be an innocent smile.

"Of course he's happy," Sasuke scoffed, "this means he's not becoming Hokage in week."

"I have no idea what you mean," Kakashi repeated, expression unchanging, even though he was all but radiating manic glee.

Sakura rolled her eyes but moved on without further comment. "If the calendar on my wall was correct, and there isn't any reason for it not to be, then tomorrow is team assignment day. Or, well, today."

"That's really far back," Naruto sighed, though he wasn't surprised. He rubbed at his forehead and then flinched upon realizing he was using his right hand.

By the way Sasuke was awkwardly crossing his arms, he wasn't the only one feeling exceedingly uncomfortable by the sudden return of a limb after over a year of getting used to its absence.

"At least we won't have to stack the team or anything. As it is, nothing we do now should change that," Sakura continued, eyes drifting around the room as she was lost in thought. They snapped back to Naruto, sharpening instantly, when he couldn't hold in a snort.

"We would've been assigned the same team anyways," he informed her, plopping down on the solitary chair next to his tiny little kitchen table. "Team 10 and Team 8 were made for info gathering and tracking, and they're both second generation team formations. Which leaves Sasuke and I left over, of the graduates that more or less  _had_  to pass their sensei's genin test, which left us together. And Kakashi-sensei would've been assigned to us because he's the only one with a sharingan to teach Teme over here. You're the only one who would've been an unknown, Sakura, since you're not a clan kid, but with your intelligence they would've been stupid not to assign you with us."

Silence met his words and he glanced up to find all three openly gaping at him, even if Sasuke was trying hard not to show it. He couldn't help but scowl.

"What? I've been shadowing baa-chan all year, you really think I haven't learned anything?" He demanded, huffing when at least Sakura had the decency to look sheepish.

"Sorry, Naruto, it's just weird hearing you be so logical when you look like that," she admitted, shrugging, and, okay, he had to give her that one. He'd never admit it out loud, for fear of Sasuke never, ever letting it go, but he'd definitely been a bit of an idiot when he was a kid.

A derisive snort from his mind let him know just how much of an understatement Kurama thought that was.

Rolling his eyes, at both his team and his inner demon, Naruto grumbled, "Can we get back on track? We're in the past, most of us are twelve, what the hell are we gonna do?"

"He has a point," Sasuke admitted, sounding grudging, which,  _rude_ , "can we even do anything? My chakra reserves feel about the same as they were in the future, but my body is definitely, ridiculously out of shape."

Every single one of them shared a wince at that, since his body wasn't the only one.

"My reserves feel the same, too," Sakura admitted, holding a hand up and letting it briefly glow green, "and my control seems just as good. But my Strength of A Hundred seal is gone, which is annoying, and my body has hardly any muscle mass. Hardly any mass at all, really, which is just unhealthy."

"Kurama's seal stayed open, thankfully." Naruto didn't even want to think of what would have happened if it hadn't. He would've felt completely awful if that had been the case. "And my reserves have always been huge, so I'm guessing they're the same. If my control didn't come back with me, I might actually cry."

Sad thing was, that wasn't even an exaggeration. He had fought tooth and nail for the control he had and even then, it wasn't all that great. To start back all the way at square one, unable to even walk up a tree, would've been absolute  _hell_.

As one, all three of them turned to face their teacher, who'd yet to speak up, only to find him slouched against the wall with his nose buried in his book.

"Really?" Sakura demanded, eye twitching. Sasuke and Naruto, both recognizing the signs of an imminent explosion, carefully edged away from her. "We're over five years in the past and you're reading  _porn_?"

"I can multitask," the man informed her blandly, not even looking up as he spoke. "My reserves are the same, though like you three, my body is a bit out of shape. Easy enough to rectify."

"Kaka-sensei," Sakura smiled at him, sweet as could be, and it was at this point that Sasuke and Naruto gave up all pretense and simply plastered themselves to the wall behind her, hopefully out of danger, "we're working together as a team to figure out what happened and to plan out what to do now. As our leader, it's your responsibility to be a part of this discussion, don't you think?"

"Maa, in just a moment, Sakura-chan. I just got to the part where Aiki seduces the -"

Both boys winced as their teacher went crashing through the wall he'd been leaning against, Sakura's fist still raised as she stepped delicately over the rubble in pursuit, and Naruto couldn't help but thank the Sage that all the other tenants in this building had moved out years ago, not wanting to be that close to the fox brat. Otherwise this probably would've caused a lot of awkward questions.

"I take it we won't be lying low and hiding our abilities," Sasuke commented dryly, slowly relaxing as sounds of pain echoed from the other side of the wall. Now that she was taking all her frustrations out on her target, they should be safe so long as they didn't piss her off as well.

Sasuke might have once thought that, as her once-crush, he'd be safe from Sakura's monstrous strength. He'd learned within less than a month that this was very much not the case and that, though she'd forgiven him, she had quite a lot of anger to still work out where he was concerned. Best not to give her a reason to do it.

"Nah," Naruto admitted easily, righting the chair that had fallen from the shockwave and plopping back into it. "I think you and Kaka-sensei would've been the only ones able to pull that off. I'm not really good at hiding, obviously, and Sakura tends to forget herself when she's mad. It would've only been a matter of time before she punted one of us through a wall in front of witnesses."

Sasuke sighed but didn't disagree. No point, since it was true.

"We're all going to be training pretty hard, though, so even if we're not hiding our abilities, we might be able to pass it off without actually admitting to  _time travel_ ," Naruto continued, eyes squinted as he thought. "Everyone knows that sensei is a genius, and they all say that you are, too, so it won't surprise them if you get strong quickly. Sakura is thought of as only book smart, but she's always had a natural talent in chakra control. And as for me, well. Iruka-sensei was pretty much the only one who didn't go out of their way to sabotage me when I was younger and after awhile I just decided to do things my own way. With a teacher who's actually teaching me, it's not all that unbelievable that I'd get good pretty quickly."

Naruto trailed off, catching sight of the grimace taking over Sasuke's face, and couldn't help but smile at him. He'd never blamed his teammates for the way he'd grown up, they were just kids themselves and it wasn't their fault, not really. He'd been a little bitter over how Kakashi-sensei had never come forward, given that he was his dad's last living student, but he'd gotten over that fast enough. He might not have been there for his childhood, but the man had been there ever since, and to Naruto, that made up for it.

And even if it didn't, not entirely, it wasn't like there was much to be done about it now. No good would come from being bitter or hateful or from holding a grudge. Best to just move on and be happy that he was in his life now.

"Right now, nobody really knows any of us, anyway," Naruto continued. "Iruka-sensei and Jiji might be a bit confused, but that's about it. None of us have friends, not really, so it's not like any of our classmates can tell the difference. So long as our personalities don't do a complete turnaround, we should be fine."

"That's very true," their sensei agreed as he climbed back through the crater he'd originally been blasted through. He was a lot more scuffed then he'd been before and was walking with a bit of a limp, and his book was noticeably absent, but otherwise he looked fine. Sakura, stepping through behind him, looked smugly satisfied. "You should be fine, Sasuke, as you tend to lean more towards complete social avoidance, still, if it's not the members of Team 7 that you're interacting with."

The badly hidden " _hypocrite_ " that Naruto coughed into his fist went ignored.

"Obviously, all three of you have matured quite a bit, but you've all kept the main parts of your personalities. All you have to do is play those up during the team assignments and you should be fine. After that, interaction with your fellow graduates will be rare for awhile as all the teams settle in. After that period of time, bigger changes in your actions won't seem all that odd."

"So, basically, we pretend to be our twelve-year-old selves in class tomorrow, but afterwards we won't have to bother?" Sakura asked, arms crossed in consideration. "Seems simple enough. All I've really got to do is go around with my hands clasped, yelling ' _Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun_ ' and nobody should really be able to tell the difference."

Sasuke grimaced, clearly not looking forward to it at all, but said nothing against it. They had a point, and he could handle it for one day. Hopefully.

"Don't forget that you and Ino are currently Rivals in Love," Naruto snickered, amused by the pained look that was growing deeper and deeper on the Uchiha's face. "You're both fighting for Teme's affections and the right to be called his Number One Fan."

Sakura groaned, palming her face before shoving her hair back almost violently. "Yeah, yeah, I remember."

"I just have to be super loud and obnoxious while Sasuke just has to be quiet and glare at everything and we'll be good to go!" Naruto declared and, sadly, wasn't lying. That really was probably all it took to fool everyone in their class into thinking everything was the same as always.

Sudden snickering had all three males taking a swift step away from their pink-haired teammate. Or, in Naruto's case, leaning as far away as he could without overbalancing his chair and tumbling to the ground.

"S-Sakura-chan?" He asked warily.

"Nothing, nothing!" She assured in a way that had none of them feeling better. "Just remembering something that happened last time around. You know, it only just now occurred to me that you're both mine  _and_  Sasuke's first kiss, aren't you, Naruto?"

Naruto could feel his face grow red, hard as he tried to stop it. "T-That wasn't my fault! That kid bumped into me! And you were preforming CPR, that doesn't count, you know!"

"I don't know," Sasuke commented idly, smirking, "you were also my second kiss. That's a pattern forming."

"What?" Sakura demanded, eyes wide. " _When?!_  How come I never heard about this?"

"Never! It never happened!" Naruto insisted desperately.

"Hmm, that means I'm losing," Sakura muttered, hand held to her chin in consideration and ignoring how her words had Naruto's face practically on fire. "But don't worry, I'm sure I'll catch up!"

"You guys are the worst," he complained, slumping over in defeat.

"Maa, maa, aren't you three a bit young for this discussion?" Their sensei asked, amused, over the sound of more snickering. "Speaking of which, it's far past your bedtimes. You lot have a big day tomorrow!"

"Yeah, yeah, it's probably best if I get back home soon. My mom was usually the one to make sure I was up, back when I was in the Academy, and she'll lose her mind if I'm not there," Sakura admitted. She snagged both of her teammate's shoulders before either could step away, holding them tightly. "I'm so glad you're here with me."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted his agreement, carefully wrapping his arm around her waist in return. Naruto didn't even hesitate, hugging the both of them fiercely.

"With all four of us here, there's no way we could lose!" He agreed, grinning wide. "We'll kick Madara and Kaguya's asses all over again if we have to. Together, it'll be easy, you know!"

Kakashi sighed, ruffling both boy's hair before patting Sakura on the head. "My adorable little genin, off to conquer the world."

"But first," Sakura grinned, both boy's expressions matching hers, and if they were more than a little bloodthirsty, well, that only made their sensei feel prouder, "let's start with the village."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting the second chapter now so that anyone interested in this fic can get a better feel for if they want to give it a shot or not. Please don't expect all updates to be this quick, the next chapter probably won't be posted for a few days, at least.
> 
> I hope you guys liked it though! Leave kudos or review and let me know what you think so far :)


	3. Chapter 3

Sakura snapped awake mere seconds before knocking sounded from her bedroom door, throwing her blanket off and jumping to her feet all in the same motion, kunai already in hand.

And then promptly overbalanced, still expecting to be in the body of an eighteen-year-old, not a twelve-year-old.

"Sakura?" Her mother's voice called through the door, worried. "Are you alright, dear? I just heard an awful ruckus."

"I'm fine, mom," she groaned, heaving herself back to her feet. "I'm just a bit too excited for today, I guess."

It wasn't too much of a lie, after all. The last time around she'd been so excited she'd barely slept the night before and hadn't eaten any breakfast, partly because of her so-called ' _diet_ ' but also because her nerves had had her stomach twisting in knots. All because there was a chance she could be on a team with Sasuke-kun, which would obviously just mean that it was fate, that they were meant to be together, but what would she do if stupid _Ino-pig_ was put on his team instead?

Sakura sighed, forever grateful that she'd eventually gotten over that part of her life, and that she'd only have to pretend for a single day this time around. And knowing how much it would irritate her brooding teammate was just going to make it fun for her.

"If you say so," her mother allowed, sounding dubious. "But you'd better get up, love. You've got barely an hour left to get ready before you've got to leave."

"Okay, mom!" An  _hour_? Who needed an  _hour_  to get ready for sitting in a classroom all day? She didn't even need that long to get ready for most missions!

Then again, she didn't spend most of that hour on making sure she looked near-perfect anymore, either. Who needed to have their hair brushed just right when they'd likely be beating the snot out of bandits and missing-nin soon, anyways?

She'd done a lot of growing since she was originally this age, she knew that she had, but there was a difference between  _knowing_  and  _seeing_.

Which was proven even further when she opened her closet only to find the red qipao dress she'd worn as a genin. She could judge Naruto all she wanted for his fashion choices as a kid but it wasn't like hers were much better. The red might not be  _eye-searing orange_ , but it was still bright and would make stealth in any kind of environment more than impossible.

Sakura could get away with bright colors when she was older, because she had the skill to make up for it. And, more than that, she didn't go on too many missions anymore, spending the majority of her time either in the hospital or down in the bowels of R&D, working on the prosthetics she'd been building for her teammates.

But now, as she was? Her body was weak.  _Extremely_  weak. Just the one punch hours before had left her arm tingling and sore.

So, she'd put up with it today, and then she'd talk her mother or father into taking her shopping later on to get some more appropriate attire. Or, maybe she'd get them to just give her some money until she started on D-ranks, and then she could drag Naruto with her. She was pretty sure that if she didn't, he'd go about wearing his hideous jumpsuit for as long as he could get away with, simply to see the faces Sasuke made in response to it.

And her hair, she thought as she twisted her head from side to side and felt it brush against her back. She'd have to get it cut soon, or begin to put it up. Her body wasn't trained to be very fast at the moment and she knew that the boys wouldn't let such an advantage like that pass them by while sparring.

Her head felt heavy like this, anyway. She couldn't even remember the last time her hair had been this long - in fact, it was probably during the chunin exams, when she'd cut it that first time. After that, she'd only ever let it grow to just passed her shoulders before she'd get annoyed and chop it all off again.

So, she'd put up with the long hair and she'd do her best to act as she once had, back when she'd originally been this age, and tomorrow she'd be able to relax and be more herself and focus on things that were actually  _important_ , like getting her body up to snuff.

That thought in mind, she began tugging her dress on with barely a grimace.

.

* * *

.

Naruto had almost forgotten how bad it used to be.

Well, no, he hadn't forgotten at all, not  _really_ , but... It was difficult to fully remember what it was like, being faced with such blatant hatred and disgust, when he'd finally gained respect and love from the villagers who'd once shunned him. But here, now, he was no longer the one who'd defeated Gaara during the exams, who'd brought Tsunade back and then gone on to be exclusively trained by Jiraiya, who'd helped save the Kazekage, had defeated Nagato and saved the villagers, who'd fought against Obito, the Juubi, Madara  _and_  Kaguya and won, saving the entire Elemental Nations in the process.

No, right now he was just the demon brat who wasn't good for anything and should never have been given the chance to pass the Academy. He could see it on their faces, how angry they were when they caught sight of the Hitai-ate tied proudly on his forehead. They grouped together, watching him amble past through narrowed eyes, whispering amongst themselves behind hands that did nothing to hide the sneers underneath.

It was something that he'd grown used to long before he'd ever made genin the first time around and so hadn't been all that difficult to ignore. This time, however, he was definitely out of practice. It was all he could do not to curl in on himself, to not hunch his shoulders against the weight of their absolute loathing.

By the time he'd gotten to the Academy, he was already exhausted, emotionally, but kept his head held high regardless. It would only take a few hours for teams to be assigned and dispersed, and then it'd be just him and his teammates once more and he'd be able to relax. He'd be fine.

And if his grin was a little too wide, a bit too manic, well, it wasn't like anyone in the classroom right now besides Sakura or Sasuke would be able to tell anyways.

Speaking of.

"I got here  _first_ , Forehead, this seat is mine!"

"You did  _not_! I was three whole steps ahead of you, Pig!"

Ah, the dulcet tones of screeching preteen girls.

Sasuke was sat in the very back corner of the room, leaving only one seat next to him available, and was glaring out the window and doing everything in his power to ignore the girls duking it out verbally in order to claim that open spot.

Avoiding the flailing girls entirely, having learned his lesson last time around, Naruto instead edged into the aisle directly in front of them, scooting as far as he could to the wall. His teammates both glanced his way, gazes lingering for a second on his large grin, but neither of them said anything, knowing it would be too out of character to pass off at the moment.

"Hey, Naruto," a voice called from beside him and he turned, facing a kid that he honestly could barely remember. It was obvious whoever he was, he'd never passed his genin test and had either dropped out or gone into the Genin Corps. "What the hell are you doing here? This is only for graduates."

"Can't you see the forehead protector?" He demanded in response, jabbing a thumb towards the scuffed but gleaming metal. "I am a graduate!"

"Yeah, right!" A girl from the aisle in front of him scoffed. "Who'd you steal it from, really?"

"No one!" He yelled before grinning. "And if I had the skill to steal it from a shinobi, I'd deserve it anyway, don't you think?"

"Whatever, Dead Last," the kid who'd originally spoken laughed before clearly losing interest.

Naruto rolled his eyes at the lot of them but let it go. As he was now, he couldn't really blame them for suspecting he'd stolen it instead of earned it. After all, he  _had_  failed the graduation exam.

Not that that was entirely his fault, either. Anyone with knowledge of chakra and jinchuuriki should know that there was never any hope that he'd be able to form a regular bunshin. With as much chakra as he had, it was just simply impossible for him to control it that much. It was like asking someone to pick up a single grain of sand, in the desert, with their bare hands.

A shout of triumph followed by a howl of rage brought his wandering attention back to the spectacle behind him. Sakura had obviously used some underhanded tactic and had claimed the open spot next to the Uchiha heir as her own, something Ino and all the other girls in class were definitely not happy about.

"You  _cheater_!" Ino raged, face red in anger.

"What can I say," Sakura shrugged, smug in her victory, "all's fair in love and war."

If anything, this only seemed to piss the Yamanaka off further. "Like Sasuke-kun would love someone like -"

"Alright, everyone take a seat!" Iruka-sensei's voice called out as he ambled into the room, cutting off whatever scathing retort the blonde had been about to unleash. Sakura, having cultivated a bit of a vindictive streak over the years, simply smirked at her former and future friend and twiddled her fingers in a wave before scooting over until there was barely five inches of space between her and Sasuke.

The Uchiha sighed but didn't bother protesting, knowing that doing so would only egg his pink-haired teammate on further, and Naruto snickered at the look of pained resignation on his usually stoic face. Sakura was definitely going all out to play her role and was clearly having fun doing it.

"Starting today, all of you are real shinobi," Iruka-sensei spoke from the front of the class as everyone finally settled down and faced him, knowing by now not to test his patience too much. Naruto blocked out most of what the man was saying, having heard it before and knowing it wasn't really all that important, at least until he heard his name called. "Team 7 will be Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke."

"Ha! Take  _that_ , Ino-pig!" Sakura shouted, jumping to her feet in order to more effectively point at the scowling blonde.

"You better be able to keep up with me and Sakura-chan, Teme!" Naruto couldn't help but throw out, turning in his seat to grin at his grumpy teammate, snickering when he saw that blank face twitch in annoyance.

"Yeah, right, Naruto! Sasuke-kun's the greatest shinobi ever! There's no way you'd be able to beat him!" Sakura cut in, glaring, but Naruto could see the way her eyes were dancing with mischief, probably the same way his own were. A year ago, the two of them probably would have never prodded at the Uchiha this way, simply grateful to have him back and wary of doing anything that would jeopardize that. Now, though, after days of beating the snot out of each other and airing all of their grievances, they'd finally reached a point where they had no fear of poking a bit of fun at each other.

Didn't mean it didn't still piss the guy off, though, if the way he was beginning to scowl said anything, and they'd probably be paying for it the next time they sparred.

Totally worth it, though.

"Alright, alright! Settle down!" Iruka-sensei yelled before they could continue on, voice stern in a way that said if they didn't sit down and shut up, there'd be chalk flying at faces soon. "We still have team assignments to get to. Save it for later."

The both of them subsided reluctantly, sad to have their fun put to a stop so soon, while Sasuke's tense posture relaxed a bit in relief. Usually, he was able to give as good as he got when it came to teasing. As it was now, though, he couldn't do so without breaking his character in a big way. Uchiha Sasuke at twelve years old didn't tease or joke or even  _talk_  unless he had to, especially not to an annoying fangirl and the class' Dead Last.

He couldn't wait until after today. Sakura and Naruto might look as if they were having fun playing their own roles, but he could tell that they were chaffing to let loose with each other just as much as he was.

None of them were very used to being anything but themselves anymore.

Lunch came and went and, before long, the genin members of Team 7 were all that were left in the classroom.

"Damn him, just what does he think he's doing?" Sakura growled, cracking her knuckles in irritation. Naruto and Sasuke, sat on either side of her, inched away slowly. "He hasn't been late like this since that time he went missing for a week when Tsunade-shishou called him in for a meeting."

"Well, yeah. That meeting was to inform him that he'd been chosen as her succesor," Sasuke scoffed. "He couldn't get away with tardiness as easily after that."

"Eh, I think it had more to do with Obito and my dad than anything," Naruto disagreed absently, his attention currently on the seal he'd been slowly constructing for the last ten minutes. These hands weren't used to the smooth, sure movements required, not anymore, and so it was taking much more patience and concentration then he'd like. "He got a lot of closure during the war. He didn't have to spend so much time at the memorial anymore and so he wasn't as late to things."

"And, what, now all of that's worthless?" Sakura grumbled but frowned in thought at his words. It still surprised her, sometimes, just how perceptive he could be when it came to people, especially those he considered precious.

"Nah, this is probably more for old time's sake than anything. Besides, he's got a role to play, too, you know. It's pretty common knowledge that he's always late to everything. If he just suddenly started showing up on time, everyone'd get suspicious."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted in agreement. "What are you working on?"

"Well, I can't just put an eraser in the door," Naruto told him, tone implying that it should be obvious. "I did that last time and I don't ever do the same prank twice. So, I've got to spice it up a bit."

The fox-like grin twisting the blond's face told Sakura that she was better off not asking. Unfortunately, she was far too curious to just let it go, though she kept her tone wary when she asked, "Spice it up _how_ , exactly?"

" _Weeeell_ ," Naruto hedged for a moment, debating just how much to reveal, "I'd thought about doing it literally, at first. But knowing Kaka-sensei, he'd ignore it until he died instead of just taking that damn mask off, no matter how hot the spices I used were. So, I decided to take inspiration from my mom instead."

"Your mom?" Both teammates perked up at that. It wasn't that Naruto was reluctant to talk about his parents. More, he didn't do it often. They both knew that, while he'd come to terms with the fact that they were gone, he'd always mourn how he'd never gotten the chance to really know them. Stories from others only told him so much, after all, and he tended to hoard every new fact he learned about them jealously.

Out of the rest of their generation, Sakura and Sasuke were fairly sure they were the only ones who ever heard Naruto talk about his parents in anything more than a passing mention.

Instead of explaining further, though, all Naruto did was finish his seal off with a flourish and answer them with a vague, "You'll see," before attaching the paper to the chalkboard eraser he'd used last time around and positioning it in the door.

"Do you really think he'll let that happen twice?" Sasuke asked, more curious than derogatory.

"He let it happen the first time around. No way did he not notice it. The seal isn't obvious and he knows I wouldn't do anything actually dangerous. There's no reason for him not to."

And, an hour later, he was proven correct. Kakashi slid the door open and stepped through as carelessly as he had the first time around, doing nothing to avoid the eraser that fell on his head and released a massive cloud of chalk dust.

"Really, Naruto?" Their sensei drawled. "Reusing pranks now? I'm disappointed."

"Yeah," Naruto choked out, "you caught me  _red_ -handed."

That seemed to be all he or Sakura could handle before they both collapsed into a fit of giggles. Even Sasuke was smirking more than usual.

This all led to Kakashi realizing he'd missed something. "What did you do?"

Watching their teacher pat frantically at his hair, as if making sure if was all still there, just sent them into further hysterics. It took minutes of Kakashi pouting before they were able to pull themselves together.

"What can I say?" Naruto, wiping tears of laughter from his face, asked in a sly voice. "I took a lot of inspiration from the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero this time."

Even Sasuke snorted at that one.

"That isn't making me feel any better at all," Kakashi informed his student dryly. "Your mother was an absolute terror when it came to pranks, most of which ended in grievous bodily harm."

"Eh, it's fine," Naruto waved him off like only someone who'd never been on the receiving end of an Uzumaki prank could. "Just check a mirror when you get the chance."

Kakashi sighed but decided that, even now, Naruto didn't really have it in him to lie to his teammates, even about something like a prank. If he said it was fine then it wasn't going to be anything harmful. "Maa, maa, if you insist. Meet me up on the roof."

Without waiting for a response, the copy-nin disappeared in a puff of smoke and a flurry of leaves.

"I'd never noticed before just how sloppy he made his shunshins," Sasuke remarked as they all made their way leisurely out of the classroom and towards the stairs.

"Kakashi-sensei's always been a bit of a drama queen," Sakura shrugged. "Why do something seamlessly when you can do it with flair instead?"

"Plus now someone's gonna have to clean up those leaves, and it's not gonna be him," Naruto pointed out, stretching his arms up into the air before crossing them behind his head. "It's probably gonna be Iruka-sensei. No wonder he would always glare at Kaka-sensei like that."

"I'm sure the chronically late mission reports didn't help, either," Sakura agreed dryly.

Their sensei was, of course, already perched on the railing of the roof when they made it up there. He quirked an unimpressed eyebrow at them but made no comment on their speed, or lack thereof, and simply waited for them to take a seat before saying, "So, how about we introduce ourselves?"

There was a moment of absolute silence while all three gaped before Sasuke demanded, incredulous, "You have  _got_  to be kidding me."

"Now, now," Kakashi scolded, amusement clear in his voice but a warning in his lone eye, "you three have spent the last few years in the academy together but I know next to nothing about you."

The implications were clear: somebody was watching and so they were still playing their parts. As far as their audience was concerned, this was the first time Kakashi had ever met the three, and vice versa.

The answer of who would be stupid and/or brave enough to spy on Copycat Kakashi was also pretty obvious. The only one the man would let get away so easily with that was the Hokage.

Honestly, all three of them had completely forgotten about the customized crystal ball that the old man would use to keep an eye on the village. It hadn't lasted past the first week of Tsunade's reign, having been destroyed when Jiraiya had asked if he could have it to help with his ' _research_ '. Tsunade's answer had been to throw her entire desk, and the ball along with it, at him and, subsequently, out the window after him.

As it had been a one-of-a-kind creation, it had never been replaced, which was probably a good thing, all things considered.

Here and now, though, it was still in the possession of its original owner. And of course the Third would be using it to check up on Team 7. It was important that they pass, after all, given the fact that Sasuke was on the team. And the old man had always shown that he had a soft spot for Naruto, regardless of some of the more stupid decisions he'd made in regards to the jinchuuriki's life.

"Why don't you go first, sensei?" Sakura chirped once it became clear that neither boy would.

"Ah, well, my name is Hatake Kakashi," he told them in a bored tone, shoving his hands in his pockets and slouching. He'd kill to have his book out right now but he was pretty sure that would only result in Sakura losing her temper -  _again_  - which was definitely something to be avoided. If anyone in Konoha was bound to recognize Tsunade's strength technique, it would be the woman's former teacher. "I like Icha Icha. I dislike crazy megalomaniacs. My hobbies include reading and training. My dream for the future is to never become Hokage."

All three rolled their eyes in tandem. An impressive show of teamwork, in his opinion.

"Now, from the right, go."

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto!" The blond grinned wide, bouncing with what appeared to be extreme excitement. "I like ramen, especially when Iruka-sensei buys it for me. I dislike rabbits and the three minutes it takes for ramen to cook. My hobbies are training and pranking. My dream for the future is to become Hokage and find true peace."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," the boy in the middle continued, voice monotone. "I like tomatoes and dislike being manipulated. My hobby is training. My dream is to find justice for my clan."

"I'm Haruno Sakura. I like..." her eyes drifted towards the boy beside her and she forced a blush and giggled, only becoming more encouraged when he sighed and looked to the sky, as if praying for patience. On his other side, Naruto hunkered down and did his best to look annoyed while fighting off laughter. "I dislike zombies. My hobbies are... and my dream is..."

"I see," Kakashi grinned in amusement, confident that his mask would hide it, as the girl's giggles tapered off. "Well, now that that's out of the way, we can move on to what'll happen next. Tomorrow, the three of you will be meeting me in Training Ground Three, where I'll be testing you to see if you really have what it takes to be genin."

None of them were worried, of course. There was absolutely no way Kakashi would fail them, even if he could. Which he probably couldn't, given the way the Council was likely breathing down his neck over having him train the last Uchiha. Still, it wasn't like any of them were supposed to know that, and so each of them forced themselves to react beyond the unconcerned shrugs they wanted to give.

Which meant tensing, in Sasuke's case, squawking indignantly in Naruto's and demanding answers in Sakura's.

"But, sensei, we already passed the genin exam!"

"No, you passed  _a_  genin exam, not  _my_  genin exam." Kakashi eye-smiled at the three of them, tone perfectly cheerful as he explained. "Each jounin-sensei has their own test to administer to their prospective teams. Whether you all pass or not is up to you. Out of the 27 that passed the Academy's exam, only 9 are likely to keep their rank and not be sent back to the Academy."

"What? No way!" Naruto wailed dramatically, shooting to his feet. "We'll show you! We'll definitely beat your test!"

"We'll see," Kakashi replied as vaguely as he could. He really hoped that the Hokage would be satisfied with his spying after this and would leave the test itself alone. He wanted to find out just what they were all capable of now, in these younger bodies, and there was no way they'd be able to do that if there were eyes watching their every move. "Meet me in the morning at seven. Ja ne."

A second later the man was gone, leaving the three genin alone on the roof and blinking at the now empty air in front of them. The silence lasted for only a few seconds before it was abruptly broken by Naruto snickering.

"I wonder how long it'll take him to realize his hair is dyed bright red?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last of the chapters that I have written up. The next one is about... a third of the way done? So hopefully I can get it to you next week some time. 
> 
> Either way, I hope you guys liked the update!


	4. Chapter 4

Habits are funny things, Kakashi thinks as he stares dispassionately at his own reflection. Or, more accurately, at the whirling red eye staring back.

He'd spent the vast majority of his life half-blind, but for rare bursts of brilliant focus and clarity in the midst of hard battles. Had spent nearly every moment of every day with his left eye closed, the Sharingan he'd been gifted hidden away beneath his slanted headband. It just became rote, instinct, a piece of his daily routine that he'd never even had to think about for nearly two decades.

And yet, after only a single year of having the ability to use his left eye, free of the Sharingan and the high risks of chakra exhaustion that came with it, those instincts had seemingly vanished.

It took only twenty-one days to break a habit, according to the Yamanaka who'd been assigned to him after Obito's death and his subsequent personality changes, while it could take upwards of sixty-six to form a new one.

Kakashi truly hoped that it didn't take quite that long, otherwise the next two months were going to be very long indeed. Because the Sharingan is an enormous drain on his chakra reserves, regardless of the fact that it was nowhere near as bad as it had been when he'd originally been this age.

And you would think that, being the massive drain that it was, he'd notice it immediately. Or, at the very least, that he'd notice how everything was suddenly,  _startlingly_  clear.

But no. This was the second day in a row that he'd gone through almost the entirety of his morning routine before noticing that his left eye was both uncovered and open, and only then because of the flash of red he'd caught in the mirror.

Really, and they'd tried to make him  _Hokage_.

With a sigh, he tugged his Hitai-ate down and made his way out of his apartment, absently reengaging his various traps as he went. Those, at the very least, had stayed the same, though he'd added a few more that he'd had in the future.

It was a good thing his students had been reduced to their younger skill level as well, he decided as he gauged his chakra reserves and the fatigue that was already wearing on him, because if they'd still been in their future bodies, the fight that was about to take place probably would've ended embarrassingly quickly and he would've only had himself to blame.

Thankfully, while their chakra reserves and overall knowledge had remained, their bodies were about as out of shape as one could get without being a civilian. Their muscle memory would no longer be there and no matter how quickly their brains worked, their bodies would never be able to keep up.

In that, at least, Kakashi had a definite advantage. Against their future selves, he's proud to admit that he likely would have stood no chance unless it was truly an all-out battle. Against them now? He might work up a bit of a sweat, if he was being generous.

His students had quite a ways to go, to catch up to their former ( _future?_ ) glory, and it would likely take them quite a while. Less time than it originally had, maybe, but the three of them were still barely teenagers at the moment.

As lacking as they were physically, though, they could probably make up for it at least partly with skill. They each had a veritable library of jutsus at their disposal, though Sasuke arguably had the most varied thanks to his Kekkei Genkai, and the Uchiha still had the Mangekyo on top of that. Sakura had her mastery of medical jutsu and Tsunade's strength technique combined with her ironclad chakra control. Naruto had his rasengan, his sealing and his control over the Kyuubi's chakra.

That was the question, though, Kakashi pondered as he ambled down the street in the direction of Training Ground Three, nonchalantly avoiding collisions with civilians even with his nose buried in his book.  _Did_  the three of them still have those things, at least to the point that they'd be usable in a fight right now?

He knew from experience just how taxing the use of Mangekyo could be on the body, though it was arguably worse for him since his hadn't ever been meant for him. Even if he could access it, it was extremely likely that Sasuke would be unable to do much with it for the time being, not without causing more damage than it was worth. Plus, it hadn't escaped Kakashi's notice that the Uchiha no longer possessed his Sage-given Rinnegan. (which Kakashi was honestly thankful for, because how would they have explained  _that_?) Meaning it was probably safe to assume that, given Itachi's current status as  _still alive_ , Sasuke no longer had an Eternal Mangekyo, either, without which the threat of blindness was a very dangerous possibility. So, even if Sasuke  _could_  use Mangekyo freely,  _should_  he?

And at this point in time, Naruto's younger body had only ever been introduced to the bare minimum of demonic chakra. Even with the seal now open and the two working as partners, that much potent chakra running through his system without the chance to build up his tolerance was likely to be... damaging. As far as Kakashi knew, Sage Mode should still be fully attainable to the Uzumaki at the moment, since he still knew how to balance Nature chakra within himself, but would he be affected by the fact that he technically no longer held the Toad contact? Or did he? After all, summon animals were beings that lived in their own dimension and only came to this one when called, who was to say that such a thing could be affected by a seal that rewound time? After all, wasn't time just another dimension when you really thought about it?

There were so many unknown variables to take into consideration and, until they tested it out, it was impossible to say, one way or another.

Sakura would probably be the one most unaffected of his students by their current obstacle, skill-wise, but she was also the one who would suffer the most physically. Most of her skills came from her precise and total control over her chakra which was something she still had the ability to do, along with the reserves to still make use of it. But, comparatively, her body was  _worse_  than out of shape. In this time, the girl had spent the last few months, at least, on a so-called  _diet_ , which in fact had left her body weak and practically half-starved. It was no wonder that she'd been so abysmal at taijutsu at the start, since it had probably taken everything she had not to simply black out at the strain of exercise. And until she built up a respectable amount of muscle, using the Legendary Sucker's strength technique would probably cause her more damage than it was worth, in the long run. Likely, the only reason she'd been able to get away with it when they'd first arrived in this time was the fact that she could heal the worst of the consequences.

Kakashi himself could admit that he had a bit of training to do, too, to build up the strength and skill that had dulled in this body since his retirement from ANBU, but he still had the reflexes of a jounin, still had his Sharingan and Mangekyo and the knowledge and chakra reserves to use both, though he was out of practice. All in all, he'd likely be back up to his future level - or  _better_  - within just a few short months.

His students, on the other hand, would likely take years for their bodies to fully catch up.

At least they had that time, he mused to himself as he took a quick glance at the sky, noting that it was about three hours passed the time he'd given his students to meet and that he should probably make his appearance soon, lest they decide their annoyance was enough to collaborate on a suitable payback together.

(And Kakashi had to resist the urge to shiver at just the thought. Naruto was definitely an Uzumaki, through and through, something that was all too obvious when it came to his more dangerous pranks. Combine his creativity with Sasuke's aggressive need to get even and Sakura's quite frankly terrifying level of unsympathetic vindictiveness, and it made an absolute recipe for complete disaster. Kakashi's apartment hadn't ever been the same, after that last time, and Tsunade hadn't been able to look him in the eye for  _months_  afterwards without breaking down into gleeful snickering.)

They would use today to assess where their abilities stood, which ones they could still dependably use and which would have to be trained or put on hold until their bodies could withstand the strain of them. And then they'd be able to start making plans on how to go from there. They had a few months yet until the disaster that was the Chunin Exams and everything that had subsequently followed. And, after, they would hopefully have a few years, at least, until Akatsuki began truly making their move. It should hopefully be plenty of time to come up with plans and contingencies and to work on what needed to be worked on so that they'd actually be capable of carrying them out.

Yes, Kakashi decided, that was what they would do. Until they knew what their current limits were, speculation would only get them so far.

With that, he finally acquiesced and shunshined to his final destination, arriving in his usual flurry of leaves with a guileless smile and a ridiculous excuse already on his lips, only to pause.

Because the three genin before him looked almost nothing like the ones he had supposedly only met the day before.

All three of them had traded in the outfits they'd worn yesterday for much more sensible attire. They were now mostly clothed in grays and blacks, though Naruto and Sakura hadn't given up their signature colors completely. Sasuke had clearly decided to replicate the ANBU's outfit, sans white body armor, which truthfully looked a bit silly on his twelve-year-old frame, but it wasn't like Kakashi could judge; it'd taken him months to get used to the looser-fitting clothes that most shinobi usually wore. Sakura had even taken the time to visit a salon, apparently, her bubblegum pink hair trimmed into a bob that framed her face, her bangs now styled to lay over her forehead much like they had in the future.

If this really was only the second time he'd met them, he likely would've been reluctantly impressed. It took most until they reached chunin to realize that they really didn't have the skill necessary for the freedom of dressing as conspicuously as they wanted. It was partly the reason those who reached that rank were often required to wear the vest; they were now of higher rank and thus carrying out missions far more dangerous than they had previous experience with. To stick out when they didn't have the power to back it up was a death sentence for most.

As it was, he simply felt exasperated, especially when he focused on what they were  _doing_  instead of just how they appeared. Because all three of them were sitting peacefully side by side, obviously comfortable in each other's company. Sasuke was inspecting his weaponry, Sakura was idly flipping through a massive medical tome and Naruto was almost frantically scribbling away in a notebook, the look of complete concentration on his face so much like Minato-sensei's that it almost made Kakashi's heart ache.

Really, he didn't know what he'd been expecting. None of them had ever been what you'd call  _subtle_.

"You're very lucky the Sandaime was content to wait for my verdict instead of spying in," he informed them dryly. Not a one of them bothered to look up or even acknowledge his presence, which,  _rude_. "Or else the sight of you three now would be more than a little suspicious."

"We could've just said that we'd taken your threat yesterday seriously," Sakura shrugged, finally glancing up at him. Her unimpressed expression told him exactly what she thought of his tardiness. "None of us want to be sent back to the academy. Now, we can just say that  _you_  told us to take it seriously. We're the first team you've ever passed. Nobody knows just how you'd act as a teacher to genin. The only prier experience you have is with ANBU, right?"

He grudgingly admitted that she had a point. "And Naruto's new fervor for note-taking?"

"I just happened to mention that I'd seen the name Uzumaki in a history book and that they'd apparently been seal masters. No one can blame him for wanting to be closer to his family in any way he can, right?" She asked innocently, head cocked to the side in seeming obliviousness, and Kakashi decided to admit defeat in this case. There'd still likely be questions, especially from the Sandaime and Iruka, but it probably wouldn't present too much of a problem.

Besides, at the moment that wasn't actually what they were supposed to be focusing on.

"Alright then, you three," Kakashi clapped his hands together lightly and instantly had their attention. Within moments their things had been put away and they had fallen into line before him, ready to receive orders from their team captain. Honestly, the change in them was so much more jarring when paired with their youthful appearance. "Today, we're gonna test out our limits and find where they are. We need to know what we can do and, more importantly, what we  _can't_. You're going to come at me with all you've got. You already know your objective."

He pat the two bells tied to his belt loop gently, fondly, and watched his students nod, their faces set in determination. They'd been unable to get even one the first time around, working separately and blind to the true nature of the test. The second time, Naruto and Sakura had used deviously underhanded tactics to get one over on him, which he'd been a little sore about at the time even as he'd commended them whole-heartedly for it.

This time, all three of them were together, were a true team, and there was no chance of having the ending of one of his precious books spoiled, even if they'd decided to try the same tactic twice, which was extremely unlikely.

It would be interesting to see just what they came up with this time.

"Well?" He asked, smiling at them cheerfully. "Get to it."

Within seconds, he was standing alone in the clearing.

.

* * *

.

Naruto stopped after a few long moments of running, landing to crouch noiselessly on the ground about a mile and a half downwind of the clearing their sensei still occupied, and waited.

Sasuke might have better reflexes, right now, but the Uchiha had never been able to beat him in flat-out speed. Almost nobody could in the future, really, but for now at least he knew that he had all of the Rookie 9 beaten.

He didn't have to wait for long, though, before Sasuke was landing next to him without a sound. They shared a commiserating look - Sakura was still a ways out and was likely to be Extremely Angry in the face of her obvious physical weakness - before directing their attention and senses towards the area around them instead. Just because it felt like Kakashi-sensei was still in the clearing didn't mean he actually was, something they'd all learned the hard way. In fact, if they didn't already know just what their teacher was expecting to glean from this particular test, they never would've risked stopping in one place for this long, let alone long enough to come up with any sort of plan.

He wasn't testing their situational awareness, though, or their ability to plan on the fly or to cope with unexpected situations. He wasn't concerned about making sure they could work together as a well-oiled machine even without the chance to speak with each other. Today, the biggest concern was just what they'd be able to accomplish now, physically, severely weakened as they were.

Naruto couldn't help but grimace, honestly. It wasn't that he hadn't trained at this age, because he had, but he hadn't known how to do so _correctly_. He'd known that most of his teachers at the Academy disliked him - beyond being the Jinchuuriki to the beast that had destroyed their village, slaughtered their comrades and killed their Hokage, he'd also been just plain loud, obnoxious and ill-behaved - but at the time he hadn't caught on to the fact that some of them had been outright  _sabotaging_  him.

It wasn't anything big, not anything easily noticeable, otherwise he knew Iruka-sensei at the very least would have never let it pass, even before he'd grown close to Naruto. Just a taijutsu kata corrected wrongly here, a question  _"accidentally"_  ignored there, but after years those small things very quickly added up. And it wasn't like he'd had anyone to turn to, to ask for help from, when he'd been younger. Other kids could ask parents, siblings or friends for help with their homework but Naruto hadn't had the option. And by the time Iruka-sensei had become his teacher, he'd simply stopped trying to get help from anyone, since it clearly didn't work, and hadn't even thought to try again.

Hell, he hadn't even really known just how badly his writing and reading-comprehension skills had been until he'd gone on his training trip with Ero-sennin and the man had tried to conscript him into helping edit his manuscripts. But he'd never had anyone to teach him those things before being entered into the Academy and it was something all the other kids had already learned.

The point was, at this age, Naruto had no base. His taijutsu had been more bar-brawl than anything, with little to no finesse, and he had no muscle-memory for his future style, nor the strength to really back it up. He knew a fair number of ninjutsu but his younger hands couldn't keep up properly, making his seals slow and clumsy. His brain now moved far faster than his body could ever hope to keep up with, regardless of what speed and stamina he might have still possessed.

As if all of that weren't bad enough, Kurama had already gravely warned him away from trying to access any of his Tailed Beast chakra. Not only would it be felt throughout the village and send everyone into a panic, but it was also extremely likely to... erode away at him. A lot like it had before the seal had been opened, apparently, but much worse because his body now hadn't ever had to handle more than negligible amounts of the demonic chakra before.

So, that pretty much left Naruto with Sage Mode, something he knew he could still access,  _thank the Sage_ , but which probably wouldn't be all too helpful in the grand scheme of things. It would make him faster, stronger, more durable, sure, but it was unlikely to be enough to make a huge difference with his body being this lacking.

There were a lot of reasons why time travel was a bad idea. Being stuck in his younger,  _weaker_  body was definitely near the top of the list.

Glancing back and catching sight of the ugly scowl on Sasuke's face, he knew he wasn't the only one who thought so.

Still, Naruto couldn't help but try to turn his thoughts towards the positive, as he always did. There wasn't much point to sulking about it. What was done was done and no amount of bemoaning it would change anything. Instead, he'd just have to work twice as hard,  _three times_  as hard if he had to. He'd managed it last time, with all the odds stacked against him, and this time he had a major head start, had others that he could whole-heartedly depend on.

They weren't starting with nothing. They were Team 7, would always be Team 7, and they had each other. That was enough. Until they built up their individual strength once more, that was more than enough.

Sakura crashed through the underbrush at that moment, bangs sticking to the sweat on her face and chest hitching as she worked to regulate her breathing, her movements jerky and containing none of the finesse they usually did.

The look on her face was practically apocalyptic and usually meant that someone was about to get punted through a wall hard enough to bring down the entire building.

(And that wasn't just an over-exaggeration, either. He was pretty sure that one guy had ended up with almost all of his bones broken, though even Naruto had a hard time dredging up sympathy when it had come as a result of him - at the height of stupidity - attempting to drug Sakura's drink in a bar in Kiri. What could have once culminated into an international incident had instead ended with Terumi Mei high-fiving her. Which had been  _terrifying_  to witness.)

Thankfully, none of that wrath seemed to be aimed at either of them, at the moment, and Naruto just hoped they could keep it that way.

" _I hate this_ ," Sakura snarled, stomping forward to stand next to them, angry past the point of caring if her movements were announcing their position like a neon sign. Usually, such a thing would result in Kakashi descending upon them like a wraith, and Naruto and Sasuke were both tensed in preparation for it, but it still appeared that their teacher was content to let them come to him for once. "Kakashi-sensei wasn't even out of sight and I was already tired. What in the hell was I  _thinking_  at this age? I have no stamina at all, whatever muscle I built up in the Academy has been burned away, likely to make up for the fact that I've clearly been  _starving myself_ , and this isn't a new development! This has to have been going on for months! How could our teachers see prospective kunoichi doing this and not set us straight immediately? How could they let anyone graduate in this condition?"

Naruto remained quiet as she ranted, less out of fear of calling himself to her attention and more because he really didn't know what to say to her that wouldn't just feed her anger. Because there really were no good excuses to be made. A lot of the teachers right now hadn't been in a fight in years, if they were shinobi at all, with the exception of a rare few. And those few tried, they really did, but they couldn't be everywhere at once, couldn't cover all the bases.

"After this, we're going out for ramen for lunch," she announced, head held high even as they snapped theirs around to stare at her, Sasuke in betrayed disbelief and him in hopeful excitement. "It'll replace the sodium we lose, and I need the carbohydrates. And for dinner, we'll go to Yakiniku Q. Tomorrow, after training and missions, we'll go shopping to stock up on food. Training won't do us any good if we're not eating right."

"But... ramen for lunch?" Naruto asked, just to be sure.

"Ramen for lunch," Sakura nodded. "And Kakashi's paying."

Naruto let a grin split his face. He wasn't at all looking forward to another shopping trip; just the one had been excruciating enough, honestly. Granted, he'd been henge'd the entire time, so he hadn't had to deal with angry civilians or ridiculously unfair prices, but it had still taken him a while to find something he was happy enough to wear. He'd stuck to darker shades, like he'd taken to doing in the future, and found a dark grey sleeveless shirt, equipped with a tall neck that he could duck his face into, to hide the marks on his cheeks, and a large hood that he could cover his bright blond hair with. The lining was edged with a dark orange, only noticeable in the light, and he'd taken the time the night before to painstakingly stitch a dark blue Uzumaki spiral into the back. He'd been tempted to make it orange, or red to match the majority, but had ultimately decided against it. Something like that would be a pretty big bulls-eye and would only make all his other efforts go to waste.

Sakura had followed his lead, directing her attention towards darker clothes instead of the bright pinks and reds she'd always favored. The top she'd decided on had born a resemblance to what she'd worn before they'd been sent back, though with shorter tails and a bit more modest, but in a medium grey with dark red lining, and she had added her clan symbol to the sleeves sometime before this morning . She'd chosen a pair of black shorts to wear underneath, reaching down to her knees, and had added a belt with pouches on either side to hold the medicines and poisons she'd be stocking up on.

Sasuke had gone the simple route, opting to get as close to the ANBU outfit he'd worn practically nonstop since joining their ranks as he could, because he was a boring stick in the mud even at the best of times. He'd apparently decided to add the Uchiha fan to the back of it, though it probably had been a very grudging allowance. Sasuke at this age had held a lot of pride in his clan and, while that hadn't completely changed, it had definitely lessened after everything he'd learned about them. And part of what he'd liked so much about ANBU was the option to just... fade into the background, to become one of the many, even as he was raised through the ranks. Here, now, that wasn't an option for him. 

Still, they'd all made their changes, and had come out of the trip satisfied with what they'd accomplished.

That didn't mean Naruto wanted to experience it again, though.

But Sakura was staring them down, eyes burning with barely withheld rage and just daring them to argue, to give her a reason to unleash all her pent-up frustration on them, and neither of them were stupid enough to say a word in the face of that.

Besides, ramen was a pretty good motivator when it came to getting Naruto to agree to something he otherwise would've outright refused, and he wasn't at all ashamed of blatantly falling for it.

Sasuke glanced between the two of them, calculated his odds of changing their minds, and then sighed and gave in with bad grace.

"Whatever," he grumbled. "We have to get through this first. Plan?"

"I'll have to be relegated to support," Sakura concluded after a moment of silence. Naruto could tell by the look on her face that she hated having to admit it. "I can use the Strength Technique once, maybe twice before the damage will be too much to heal quickly. I can still use jutsu and I can steal heal you if I need to, but I won't be able to for long. Having enough chakra and control won't do me a lot of good if my body gives out."

"And we can't trap the area if Kakashi-sensei isn't moving," Naruto murmured, hand held up to his chin in thought. "Jutsu and Sage Mode are all I've got to work with. Kurama said I'm not allowed to use his chakra for a while, not until my body has more of a resistance to it. Sasuke?"

The Uchiha grimaced. "I'm pretty sure I still have my Mangekyo but it's probably just that. Not the Eternal Mangekyo. So, I don't know how using it will go. Beyond that... I have jutsu. My taijutsu was almost chunin-level at this point, but that's not really saying much."

They all shared a discouraged look. They'd already known it, from the moment they realized they were in their pre-genin bodies, but to hear it laid out like that... They were all in a bad way, far behind their own standards. It was going to take a colossal amount of work to whip their bodies into any kind of shape.

"Well," Naruto chirped, trying to interject as much cheer into his voice as possible, "we gotta start somewhere, yeah? Might as well be now, 'ttebayo!"

Sakura and Sasuke shared a look, exasperated and fond beyond measure, and then nodded, their gazes hardening with determination. This was a challenge and no member of Team 7 had ever been good at turning away from a challenge.

"Right. Let's do this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was so difficult and not at all what I had wanted. It just feels very clunky to me. But it's been a while since I last updated so I wanted to get at least something out. Sorry to any of you who are disappointed with it.
> 
> Kakashi definitely seems like the type of person that would get lost in his own thoughts a lot, would try to map everything out mentally and would have to force himself to stop when he started going in pointless circles. Hence why he ended up always losing time at the Memorial.
> 
> This chapter isn't as light or as playful as the previous ones. And they won't always be. I have a lot of problems with canon and I want to see them actually addressed. And so they will be. Because the members of Team 7 have absolutely no time for anyone's shit anymore and it's glorious.
> 
> Honestly, if there's anything along those lines that any of you would like to suggest, I'm all ears. Who knows what might spark my inspiration.
> 
> Also: I've gotten a question regarding Sasuke's Rinnegan and why he no longer has it. And it's along the same reasoning as to why his Mangekyo is no longer Eternal. To develop a Rinnegan, you need both Uchiha and Senju DNA. It has nothing to do with chakra, not really. And, while Sasuke's future body had the required DNA via the Sage, younger!Sasuke obviously does not. Ergo, no Rinnegan. Just like he no longer has an Eternal Mangekyo because younger!Sasuke only has his own eyes, not Itachi's. Hopefully that makes sense to all of you! And sorry for any confusion I might have inadvertently caused for not explaining it outright from the get-go.
> 
> Anyway, as always, thanks for reading! Please follow, favorite or leave a review to let me know what you think!


	5. Chapter 5

In the end, they each decided that simplicity was the best way to go.

There wasn't any need for some convoluted plot; their teacher already knew they had the ability to pull that off if it was neccesary, and that wasn't what this test was about to begin with. What they needed was to be showy while also being stealthy and, with Naruto on the team, that was actually fairly possible.

And so, after a few minutes of hashing it out, they made their way back towards the clearing, not bothering to hide their approach. These bodies were clumsy and Kakashi was a jounin. Even if they tried, it was doubtful they'd be able to sneak up on him. At least, not until he was sufficiently distracted.

Sakura made the first move, leaping from a tree branch and bringing her fist down onto the ground with all the chakra-enhanced strength that she could. Instantly, it buckled outward, breaking apart easily from the force. Kakashi, long used to such moves, simply used the momentum to jump and avoid it, landing gracefully on two feet once more after everything had settled.

And then had to immediately dodge, as Naruto bore down on him with a rasengan, his eyes a clear indication that he was utilizing Sage Mode. And again as Sasuke bombarded him with a Phoenix Flower Jutsu. And again as Sakura volleyed a handful of shuriken at him.

Soon enough, all three of them were coming after him, back to back to back, trying their best not to give him a moment of rest. Their jutsu repertoire really was admirable, had been even when they'd been older. Now, though, it was likely to turn a whole hell of a lot of heads. Not even most high chunin knew so many, and here were three seemingly  _pre-genin_ , throwing them out like they were no big deal. Even Sakura, though she stuck more to the outer edges, trying to distract him with precisely aimed kunia and shuriken more than with jutsu, likely in an effort to save her energy for the right time to use another hard punch.

It was going about how Kakashi had figured it would. They were miles,  _miles_  ahead of their peers when it came to chakra control and application, and both Sasuke and Naruto likely were physically, as well.

But he could see that they were already tiring, already faltering. The only one still going strong was Naruto, but he'd always been a chakra and stamina freak, and Sage Mode had only made him that much more durable. But even so, they all only had the bodies of barely trained kids. They wouldn't last much longer.

And then suddenly the clearing was flooded with  _blond_ , everywhere, giving Sasuke and Sakura a chance to step back and catch their breath. Kakashi approved of the tactic, even as he cut through the horde like butter, but if he were a true enemy it never would've worked. Would've likely backfired, drawing attention to weakness instead of away from it.

He debated, for a moment, going over to his other two students to prove a point, but ultimately decided against it. They probably already knew it just as well as he did.

As he dispelled one of the last groups of clones, their eyes having returned to Naruto's usual bright blue, he felt a slight shift in the air behind him, the only warning he got before a Fūton: Great Breakthrough was directed his way. Not even a second later, Sasuke had taken his chance to add a Grand Fireball. Usually, that attack was fairly useless, unwieldy and slow enough to easily dodge, but added to the boost of a wind jutsu and backed by both boy's chakra, it turned the clearing into a mini inferno that even Kakashi barely avoided the reach of.

Just as his feet touched down upon a clear chunk up uprooted earth, a hand was shooting up from the ground towards him at lightening speeds and zeroing in on the bells attached at his hip.

Kakashi could've dodged again, if this had been a real mission or if he'd been taking things more seriously. But he could see the way Sasuke was panting and grimacing, his limbs trembling with faint aftershocks from the Raiton jutsus he'd used earlier. Sakura, below him, was heaving for breath and clearly struggling to find the strength to dig herself out of the Doton jutsu she was using. Naruto could likely go on, especially if he'd left another clone somewhere to gather more nature chakra, but he'd probably be going on alone until his teammates restored their energy.

In the face of that, Kakashi decided to let them have this victory. It'd probably be the last, for a while, until they trained up more endurance. And the three were likely to be extremely frustrated and disappointed in their performance already, no need to rub that in further by denying them this one thing.

And so he let Sakura's hand snag on the bells and didn't fight as she tugged them away. He could see the distaste on her face (none of them appreciated being given a handicap, competitive as they were) but also the faint pride. She probably hadn't expected to do as well as she had, given the shape she was in.

"Alright!" Naruto cheered, though not quite as enthusiastically as he might've had it been a true victory. Sasuke, standing beside him, only grunted.

"Nicely done," Kakashi praised as he stooped to give Sakura a hand out of the dirt she was still fairly encased in. The one he'd thought was Sakura, now revealed as a henged clone, saluted him cheekily from where it still lingered on the edge of the clearing before dispelling. "It was a good plan, to distract a stronger opponent with big attacks while your teammate sneaks up on them. Granted, it wouldn't have worked if Sakura didn't have such precise control over her chakra. The fact that Naruto was practically leaking the stuff helped to mask her approach, as well. And neither of you made it obvious that you were trying to herd me into position, either."

"I had to break the ground first," Sakura admitted with a wince as she attempted to dust herself off. A futile effort, really, but he applauded her determination. "I didn't have the strength to move through solid earth, even if I had enough chakra to perform the Doton technique."

"My clones barely lasted a second," Naruto sighed. "I can coordinate with them way better now but without good taijutsu to back them up, they're pretty much worthless in a fight, besides being distractions."

Sasuke was scowling, staring down at his twitching fingers as if they'd betrayed him. "I couldn't put a lot of power into my Raiton jutsus. I can barely feel my arms at all. This body is so _weak_."

Silence descended upon them as the Uchiha spit the last word like a curse. Because he wasn't wrong and they all knew it.

"We have a lot of work to do," Kakashi finally announced, eyeing each of them. His students met his stare solemnly. "Obviously, our first priority is going to be working you three into shape. By the time we meet up tomorrow, I'll have your training planned out, because you're all at different levels right now. It's going to be the training from hell. What Gai puts his team through will look like a  _dream_  in comparison."

None of them argued, didn't even look like they wanted to.

Instead, Sakura said, "I can help by healing us at the end of every day, replacing and repairing our muscle fibers then instead of waiting a few days for it to really kick in. I can't do it for long; it wouldn't be very healthy for our bodies if I did. I can probably do it for a month at a time, while taking a month in-between to let it build naturally. Though, I'd say I shouldn't do it for more than three or four months overall."

Everyone took a second to ponder that. Kakashi knew how best to train to build muscle, of course, but he didn't know the medical specifics. And he'd definitely never heard of anything like that before. Though, maybe that wasn't so surprising, given Sakura was the one suggesting it.

"Kurama says he can do that for me," Naruto interjected, gaze unfocused as his attention was clearly turned inward. "He says it'll be a good way to help me get stronger quicker while also introducing his chakra to my body in small doses. It'll take a while to build up enough immunity to even try for a single tail without really messing myself up, apparently. He wants to take any chance he can get to combine our chakra."

"We can also add weights," Sasuke suggested, face twisted into a grimace as he admitted, "it worked well for Lee."

"Yeah, Bushy Brows has always been super fast, even when we first met him! He totally kicked Teme's ass without even breaking a sweat!"

Sasuke growled, swinging out a fist that Naruto neatly spun away from with a challenging smirk. Before either of them could attack again, or worse, devolve into rolling around in the dirt like untrained puppies, Sakura stalked forward and planted herself firmly between them, the set of her face just  _daring_  them to try and move her.

"Usually, for our age group, weights aren't the best idea, actually. They can seriously hinder our growth and even be counterproductive. But if we're also reinforcing ourselves with chakra while we wear them, the damage should be negligible. And it'll help our bodies build up more of a tolerance to using jutsu, too. We have the chakra and control, right now, and the knowledge of how to use it. But beyond the Academy Three and Sasuke's Grand Fireball, our bodies haven't had to use a lot of chakra. That's why we tired out so much quicker. Our coils are being stretched further than they ever have before."

Naruto said nothing to this, since it was clear that fight had barely taken anything out of him, where the use of chakra was concerned. Even without being accustomed to the Kyuubi's chakra, he still had Uzumaki reserves, which meant that his coils were almost always stretched wide. He literally had no reference to the way his teammates must be feeling.

"Right, we'll focus on that first," Kakashi announced. "You can train however you'd like tonight, just don't overdo it. You'll need your energy tomorrow. We'll meet at the gate bright and early to do warm-up laps around the village. Then, we'll work on taijutsu until about noon. Break for lunch and then D-ranks until dinner. Then more laps and taijutsu before we head home for the night. Every day will start with laps. I might adjust our schedules day to day, but until you've gotten to a point that I'm happy with, all of our effort is going to be strictly physical conditioning. If you want to train something else, do it on your own time but don't let it affect what you do with us. Got it?"

They all nodded. They each had things they wanted to brush their skills up on separately, of course, but they could see the logic of making this their priority.

Naruto, at least, knew that he'd be able to set his clones to work on transcribing his fuuinjutsu notebooks, since they wouldn't be much help at all with getting into shape. It wasn't like any muscle they gained could be reabsorbed the way their chakra and knowledge could, after all. Besides, those notebooks were important and, as tedious as it could be sometimes, it was also kinda fun, especially since he was catching things he'd missed the first time around or, more often, getting inspired for more and more ideas. He'd already blown through two notebooks already, one of old notes and the other full of new theories.

The box of battered notebooks he'd received after the war, after his parentage had been acknowledged, had been true treasures to him. They'd each been full of his parent's thoughts, sometimes written with careful, looping script and sometimes scratched out in a hurried, almost frenzied scrawl, like if the words weren't put down onto paper fast enough they'd be lost forever. It had made Naruto feel closer to them than he ever had before, had resulted in him carrying at least one around with him everywhere, re-reading them over and over almost obsessively until he'd had them all pretty much memorized, to the point where people had actually begun jokingly comparing him to Kakashi-sensei.

Of course, they'd been full of advanced theories, written by two of the greatest fuuinjutsu users in Konoha at the time, one of whom was an Uzumaki who'd spent the first few years of her life living in Uzushio. Memorizing them hadn't meant they'd made a lick of sense to him, and that had been frustrating, because he wanted to know just what it was his father and mother were  _saying_.

Which had led him to begging Tsunade and Kakashi and anyone else who had even a vague interest in the art to train him. Most had been more than happy to, Hero of the Fourth War as he was, and while that had made him a little uncomfortable it hadn't stopped him from taking all the help he could get.

Those notebooks were locked away, right now, stored with the rest of his parent's belongings in a vault in the Hokage Tower and out of his reach. He missed them like an ache, missed that connection to his parents, no matter how small it was. Copying what had been written within onto new notebooks wasn't the same, not by a long shot, but it was something, at least.

And these hands really were unused to the smooth, sweeping motions of seal-making, now. It was something he desperately wanted to rectify and hopefully his clones would be able to cover it. He very much doubted he'd have the energy to do it himself for a while, if they were going to be training as hard as he hoped they would.

"Anyway," Kakashi smiled down at them, hands stuffed into his pockets and slouching once more, "you lot pass, obviously. We won't be able to start taking missions until tomorrow, after the paperwork is filed to declare us a team. So, the rest of the afternoon is yours. I've got a meeting with the Hokage to get to."

All three of them lunged forward, grabbing a solid hold of his arms before he could shunshin away, and he paused to blink bemusedly down at their determined, glaring little faces. "Did I forget something?"

"First," Naruto informed him gravely, not loosening his grip even as Kakashi made no move to break free, "we're getting  _ramen_."

.

* * *

.

Sasuke had never much cared what the majority of the village thought of him.

When he'd been younger, he'd been more concerned about his family, his  _father's_ , opinion. Later, others had only been an annoying distraction, taking his attention away for useless things like  _pity_  and empty praise. He hadn't wanted their apologies that something so horrible had happened to his clan. Hadn't wanted them to fall over themselves to fawn at him. Hadn't wanted their compliments or encouragements.

He was an Uchiha, of course he was stronger, smarter,  _better_. He had a solid goal and a ruthless determination to reach it, so of course he was leagues above his classmates, who toiled their days away by sleeping or pranking or gossiping.

Eyes had followed him around everywhere, after that night, always full of pity for his circumstance or envy and admiration for his bloodline, and he'd hated it, had largely ignored it, because it was useless to him.

He wasn't oblivious, though. Just as he'd felt the eyes on him, he'd  _always_  noticed the eyes on Naruto. Because it was so similar and yet so different, the way everything seemed to be between them.

Where he was greeted with bright smiles and sad eyes, Naruto got glares and hard, unforgiving faces. Where almost everyone was eager to please the moment he asked for anything, Naruto was ignored, shunned, chased away.

The blond had always ignored it, too, had put on large grins and had yelled and laughed unabashedly, had payed the ugly looks and the muttered insults little mind, to the point where most of their classmates had dismissed the treatment without thought. Naruto was a prankster, after all, was always misbehaving, it was no wonder everyone hated him. And if it had actually been going on all along, before they'd ever entered the Academy and before Naruto had ever played a prank on anyone, well, he'd always been annoying, right?

Wrong, so wrong, and no one in their age group had ever even bothered to look passed that. Had seen his smile in the face of other's contempt and had written it off. He didn't think most had clued into it even after they'd learned about Naruto's jinchuuriki status. Honestly, Sasuke wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't; their classmates had each grown into strong shinobi, in their own right, but they hadn't gained much of Sasuke's respect even before they'd been sent back, despite his teammate's exasperated attempts to socialize him. The only one who'd even come close was Shikamaru.

Though, he'd written it off, too, at this age, hadn't he? Ignored it even as he'd noticed it, forced himself not to care because what did it matter? It had nothing to do with him, wouldn't make him stronger, wouldn't get him any closer to his revenge, and so it was just as useless as everything else.

Now, though, he was letting himself notice it. He was feeling the hatred, the dislike, the annoyance and contempt and a hundred other ugly things, all directed solidly at the blond walking at his side. The blond who was clearly having a hard time keeping his head high under the weight of it.

Sasuke watched out of the corner of his eye as Naruto's grin stretched ever wider, bordering on completely manic, and had to resist the urge to snarl.

These people, they had no idea what they were even doing right now. He'd seen Naruto stand strong and proud against so many forces, from Orochimaru to Kaguya, and not be cowed in the least. And yet, just a few minutes of walking down the main road of Konoha, the place that was supposed to be his  _home_ , and he was looking smaller than Sasuke had ever seen him, even as his spine was kept rigidly straight.

Sasuke turned to meet the stares with a glare of his own and couldn't help but feel a little satisfied when they flinched back and away from him, one by one. He'd ignored it last time, had done nothing to stop them or to help his teammate, but he'd be  _damned_  if he let it go on this time around. The only one who deserved those looks was him, after all he'd done, after what he'd already been planning to do at this age.

Naruto deserved their respect, their admiration, their allegiance. He had never, not  _ever_ , deserved their hate.

Sasuke would never let himself be willfully blind to that again.

The street was growing steadily more quiet, filled with an intense unease, and it wasn't until he heard Kakashi pointedly clear his throat behind them that he realized it was because he'd begun leaking a healthy dose of Killing Intent to match his heated glare. If the way Sakura twitched guiltily from the other side of Naruto was any indication, he hadn't been the only one to do so, either.

"Maa, that's not very fair, picking on defenseless civilians like that," their teacher commented idly, seemingly not even glancing up from his book. His heart clearly wasn't in the reprimand, however, as he was surreptitiously sending out warning stares of his own.

Sasuke only scoffed and grumbled, "They're lucky that's all they're getting."

Naruto was laughing, though, a  _true_  laugh, and his shoulders had already lost a lot of their tension. "It'll be fine," he chirped brightly. "Besides, we're here!"

Without another word, the blond dashed forward in excitement and didn't waste any time in pulling himself onto a stool. By the time the rest of them had caught up, he'd placed an order and was already prattling away, much to the chef's fond amusement.

" - and then Sasuke-Teme sent a big fireball and Sakura-chan was like  _pow!_ Right up outta the ground and got the bells! It was so cool, ojisan! And we all passed and we're on Team 7 now!"

"Congratulations!" The chef and his daughter both cheered, completely sincere, and Sasuke felt his irritation slip away, at least for the moment. He'd never seen these two be anything but kind to Naruto and he knew the blond loved them both dearly for it. "In that case, first bowl is on the house for all of you!"

"Really?!" Naruto was practically vibrating in joy, as if the offer of free ramen wasn't a normal occurrence when the blond was around. "Thanks!"

Sasuke and Sakura took seats on either side of him, scooting away just far enough that they wouldn't be in danger of flailing limbs (when Naruto got into his story-reenactments, that was a very real danger) while Kakashi took the seat at the far corner, slouching as he stared into the depths of his wallet despondently.

Sasuke had absolutely no sympathy for the man. He was the only one that had any real money right now, if you didn't count the monthly stipends he and Naruto had been given due to their status as orphans or the inheritances that Sasuke hadn't ever touched. He was literally the only one capable of treating them, at the moment, and he could act the poor victim all he wanted but there was no way he was hurting for money with his mission history.

The least he could do, as their teacher, was take them out to lunch. And honestly, ramen was the cheapest option they could've picked. He should save his complaining for later, when Sakura somehow coerced him into paying for dinner, too.

They each ordered their usuals, long-used to the menu of Ichiraku, and then Sakura was pulling out her (frankly intimidating) medical text and Naruto was pulling out his fuuinjutsu notes, neither of them paying any attention to the way Kakashi was eyeing them disapprovingly and sighing in exasperation. Really, what did he expect? For none of them to work on what they favored simply because it wasn't what their Academy selves would do?

Sasuke could get away with it, easily. He was a prodigy in the eyes of the village, and it would surprise absolutely no one if he grew rapidly under the tutelage of a jounin, especially one of Kakashi's caliber. Sakura could probably mostly get away with it, too, since she'd always been book-smart with a talent for chakra control. It was really only Naruto that would turn heads and cause suspicion.

He was the Dead Last and had truly been pretty horrible the last time around, not even really knowing how to take advantage of his own strengths. But he'd grown rapidly, too, then, even when he'd still been neglected for Sasuke himself. (Something he knew Kakashi still felt guilty over, and  _good_. Even with the Council breathing down his neck, even with their so-called similarities and Sasuke's so-called genius, he never should've prioritized one student above another. Naruto and Sakura had long forgiven him for it and as the only unwounded party Sasuke really should let it go. But if there was one thing the Uchiha specialized in above all else, it was holding a grudge, no matter how hard he tried not to.)

But despite what most people thought, Naruto could lie. Naruto was a  _magnificent_  liar. He'd have to be, after the way he'd grown up. And he hadn't let that go, even after he'd become the Elemental Nation's Hero he'd still known how to wield a smile like a shield, to hide so many things behind a grin and act the fool. Even alternatively, he could lie with cold certainty, with a straight, serious face that left no doubt in his words. Sasuke had seen it, time and time again, on missions and in the face of random civilians.

The crux was that Naruto couldn't lie to those that  _knew_  him, truly knew him, the way they did, or Iruka or Tsunade or Shikamaru had, in the future. But now it was only Team 7 that would be able to spot the tells, because as much as the Sandaime and Iruka cared for Naruto in this time, they didn't know him anymore. Hadn't even known the younger Naruto, not really, hadn't been able to spend enough time with him, yet, to claim such a thing.

Naruto would lie through his teeth with a smile, when they asked about his new clothes and his new interests and skills. He'd feel terribly guilty about it, would pepper half-truths to soften the blow to himself, but he'd do it, easily, and he wouldn't be doubted because nobody would ever expect him to lie convincingly to anyone, let alone the ones most precious to him.

Kakashi could relax. He should've learned by now that so long as Uzumaki Naruto was around, even when things were at their worst, they'd always turn out fine in the end, somehow.

He might've done it the hard way, but Sasuke had finally accepted that. He wouldn't turn his back on that faith ever again.

.

* * *

.

"Team 7?"

"Pass."

Absolute silence greeted his proclamation and Kakashi manfully resisted the urge to drop a senbon, simply to hear how loudly it would echo. Instead, he lifted his eyes from the pages in front of him to meet the incredulous stares that were being directed his way.

Really, was it that much of a surprise? Sure, he'd never taken a team before, but he'd also never been presented with a team like  _this_. Even back when they'd been unrefined and untrained, they'd each had potential. If they hadn't, he never would've passed them, regardless of what the Council wanted.

The Hokage cleared his throat, trying to draw attention back to the matter at hand. "Right. Team 8?"

The list went on, more  _fail_  than  _pass_ , as was usual. A class of over thirty hopefuls and, out of all of them, only nine would be continuing on with their career. Some would go back to the Academy, some would head to the hospital to train as medics and some would be forever lost within the Genin Corps. Others still would give up entirely, would abandon their prospects as shinobi and instead devote themselves to some civilian trade.

It was how things went, how they'd gone for a while now, but Kakashi couldn't help but look around at all those who'd passed in his generation, all those who'd passed in the generation directly after. Couldn't help but wonder just what had happened, for the average of graduating teams to fall so sharply. It wasn't wartime anymore, the way it had been for them as children, but that shouldn't have made  _that_  much of a difference, surely?

Maybe he could get Naruto or Sakura to ask Iruka about it. Their goal was to stop things from getting as bad as they had before, to make it so the Fourth War hopefully wouldn't become an issue, and he knew that Naruto would still be striving towards peace in any way that he could. But there would always be missions, would always be people who needed a shinobi to protect them, and failing to train genin-hopefuls to the fullest extent they could was just  _stupidity_.

Kakashi resisted the urge to sigh and rub at his temples, the way he'd always seen Tsunade do when she was especially frustrated. Apparently he'd been infected with a Hokage's way of thinking after all, even if he'd never received the title itself.

"Kakashi, a word."

He glanced up, meeting the Sandaime's amused gaze with a shrug, completely unrepentant for his obvious lack of attention. He already knew who'd passed, after all, and even if he hadn't it wouldn't have been any concern of his. If the new genin had been anything to brag about, he'd hear about them eventually.

In the past, he'd heard about them for the first time during the Chunin Exam nominations. That spoke clearly enough of their skills at this stage.

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi inclined his head as the last of his comrades slipped out of the room, closing the door behind them, and then he waited.

"Your team," the Sandaime began, just as Kakashi had known he would, "they passed on their own merits?"

As if the old man had expected anything less. "Of course. If they hadn't, they would have failed."

Sarutobi nodded, unsurprised, and clearly chose not to waste his breath on outlining the necessity,  _again_ , of both Sasuke and Naruto passing the test and being trained, no matter what. At this point such a thing would be rather superfluous. "And, in your opinion, how did they do?"

"They did well," Kakashi admitted after a moment. He couldn't quite remember what answers he'd given, last time, and didn't want to give too much away now, either. A mix of past and present would probably be the best way to go, here. "There was tension, as their files mentioned, but they were all fairly determined to pass. Enough to work together. Their plan was well put-together. They each have potential."

"Good, good," the Sandaime sighed, looking like a huge weight had just been lifted away from him. "That's good."

"Mm." Kakashi agreed absently before stating, "Sakura seems to have found a mention of the Uzumaki clan on one of her library escapades. She mentioned it to Naruto, who's completely run with it. Apparently, his newest goal is to become a Fuuinjutsu Master."

The Hokage stared at him, truly surprised for once, before his eyes softened with old regrets and long-buried grief. In that moment, he looked every year his age and Kakashi hoped that this time around he'd survive, would live long enough to pass his hat onto Tsunade and finally  _rest_  for a while, the way he'd been meant to thirteen years ago.

"Does he know? About his parents?"

"Not yet," Kakashi lied easily. "But I'd like to tell him about his mother, at least."

Sarutobi's gaze slid past him and to the wall, landing solidly on the portrait of the man that had been his successor. For a moment, he said nothing, clearly lost in his own thoughts, before he took a deep pull from his pipe and exhaled a long trail of smoke.

"Yes," he finally decided. "Only a select few knew that Minato and Kushina were together and those that did know fully well who Naruto's parents are. But  _be careful_ , Kakashi. The boy is young, has barely made genin and has already been forced to carry one secret too large for his small shoulders. Knowledge of who his father is must not get out, not until he can defend himself properly."

Kakashi very firmly kept his opinions to himself, the way he'd almost always done on this matter, after he'd been so viciously shut down the first few times around. He hadn't had the energy to fight for Naruto in the beginning, the way that he should've, too lost in a cloud of grief after losing the last two people who'd ever meant anything to him. He'd expected Jiraiya to fight tooth and nail for his godson, to not stop until the baby was in his care, and had let himself fade into ANBU instead, never once even considering the other man's own loss.

He'd only realized the extent of his mistake years later, when he'd been assigned to a five-year-old Naruto's ANBU guard after the child had been kicked out of the orphanage and left to live on his own, the way no kid his age should be forced to. By that time the damage had been done, the decisions had all been made, and Kakashi had been barred from so much as speaking to the boy. He'd been made a regular on his guard, for awhile, likely the Sandaime's idea of kindness, before it had become too much and he'd started to request out-of-village missions once more.

He'd been a coward and he knew it. Even after he'd been told the team assignments, all he'd wanted was to fail them immediately so that he'd never have to look at Naruto again, would never have to face the very embodiment of his mistakes. He'd looked at that blond hair, those blue eyes, and had seen nothing but Minato-sensei. Had looked at that large grin, had heard that unrestrained laughter, and had seen Kushina. Had looked at the way Naruto would fail, over and over, and would get up again every time, would never give up, placed everyone else before himself, and had seen Obito.

It had been so hard, to look at him and not react, to not fall to his knees and beg forgiveness, to not run away as far as he possibly could. He'd gotten so used to hiding away, burying his pain down deep, first with missions and later with his quirks, and he'd continued to shy away, even once he'd become the teacher of Team 7, using the excuse of having to focus on Sasuke like a shield.

He'd been a coward then, had always been a coward, and he would spend the rest of his life trying to make up for that, regardless of the fact that Naruto and Sakura had both already forgiven him.

But he was still just a jounin. An elite, maybe, someone who was already in consideration for the hat, but still just a jounin. He couldn't argue, here, couldn't fight back against this decision. Doing so would only result in punishment, would only make things harder for all of them, and in the end it would be a wasted effort. Naruto already knew who his father was, after all, and while Kakashi wanted him to be able to publicly claim it with pride he also knew that wasn't what truly mattered to the boy, not as much as the simple knowledge that he'd had parents that had genuinely loved him.

And so all he responded with was a, "If you say so, sir," and let his tone speak for itself.

The Sandaime's eyes cut to him quickly, sharpening instantly, and this man might be old but he was still a  _Kage_ , one that had seen multiple wars, one who'd earned the title of God of Shinobi. His presence alone was enough to cow most people, even most jounin, but Kakashi had faced down Uchiha Madara, had faced down a literal  _god_ , and met his stare evenly.

"What," Sarutobi rumbled out after a moment, eyes narrowing in stern disapproval, "are you implying, soldier?"

"Nothing at all, sir," Kakashi replied blandly even as his posture straightened almost without thought, his heels snapping together. It took a bit of control not to go into an ANBU-regulation bow, honestly, and that was incredible. The Sandaime had always had Kakashi's respect, even when he hadn't approved of the man's choices, and this was only further proving how much he deserved it.

The Hokage held his eye for a moment longer before nodding once, sharply, and letting his overwhelming aura drop away. "I'll leave their training in your hands, as is your right, but I'd like updates on their progress. If there's nothing else, you're dismissed."

Kakashi nodded, bowed his head, and then made for the door without another word as the Sandaime returned to looking at Minato's portrait on the wall, losing himself to his thoughts once more. The man had just as many regrets as Kakashi did, he knew, but they must weigh so much more. He wasn't just in charge of himself, or of an ANBU squad or a team of genin; he was responsible for every single person within the walls of the village and many more without. He was one of the highest powers in Fire Country, below only the Daimyō. His choices couldn't ever be easy and he'd likely done the best he could at the time and now could only live with whatever consequences had resulted.

In the face of _that_ , Kakashi decided as he ambled in the direction of the barbecue restaurant, funding his student's stomachs every now and then was a small price to pay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I had a job interview yesterday and I've already heard back from them, it's looking extremely likely that I'll be hired on (which is a relief, since I'm currently the brokest of bitches) but this means that updates will probably be... sporadic, more than they've already been. I'm going to try and make sure you guys don't have to wait too long, but real life obviously has to come first in this case. I hope you guys can be understanding!
> 
> Anyway, as always, thanks for reading! Kudos, bookmark or leave a comment and tell me what you think!


	6. Chapter 6

Sasuke wasn't sure how it had happened, exactly, but he couldn't honestly say that he was surprised.

After their dinner (payed for by a suspiciously compliant Kakashi, especially after the fuss he'd kicked up over  _ramen_  just that afternoon) Sakura had announced that since there was still time before the market closed for the night, they should get their grocery shopping done now. It was a valid point; with the amount of training they had scheduled for the foreseeable future, until their bodies got used to it, they weren't going to want to do anything, let alone  _shop_.

Sakura also knew the both of them well enough to know that, without other options on hand, they'd go right back to the bad eating habits they'd originally had at this age. Naruto would settle for eating a dozen instant ramen cups in a sitting with no complaints and Sasuke would start eating technically healthy but small and extremely bland meals.

With the training they had planned, they needed  _food_. Real, healthy food in sizable portions. Otherwise all they'd be doing would be damaging themselves.

So, yes, Sakura had a valid point. Did that make Sasuke any more inclined to agree to a shopping trip? Not particularly.

A glance at his only possible means of support (as Kakashi had fled before she'd even finished the suggestion, the  _coward_ ) showed a Naruto who was full and content and pretty much willing to go along with anything at this point, having received two big meals in one day, one of which was ramen, for free. Which, going by the smug smile their teammate threw his way, had been Sakura's plan all along.

So, he'd sighed, glared, grumbled a bit, but had ultimately acquiesced. Thankfully, since it was food and not clothes, the trip itself was relatively pain-free when compared to the day before, especially after Naruto donned his henge.

Which led them to now.

_Now_  being his walk through the dark and usually deathly silent Uchiha compound towards his family home with both of his teammates trotting along behind him, their arms just as weighed down with bags as his own. They weren't being disrespectful but they weren't being quiet either. At this age the first time around, it would have driven Sasuke into a complete rage, because  _how dare they_  have such a meaningless, trivial conversation here, in this empty place full of the ghosts of his family?

As it was, Sasuke found himself nothing but grateful, though he would admit that it was odd, seeing anyone living besides himself walk these streets. Before he'd left, he'd never invited anyone here, hadn't ever even contemplated it. In his twelve-year-old mind, it was absolutely unthinkable. By the time he'd come back, years later, the compound had been gone, destroyed in Pein's attack and eventually rebuilt as housing for civilians.

He'd mourned the loss of it, vaguely, but hadn't objected to the repurposing of the land. And in a way, he'd actually been a bit relieved. He'd always felt tied to this place, even when the Hokage had offered, multiple times, to house him elsewhere. Despite the nightmares hidden in every crevice and cranny of this place, it had been his home, his family's home, and he'd felt like to give up that last connection might have been just as big of a betrayal as Itachi's. And with it gone, destroyed and replaced, the decision had been taken from him, and he'd found himself weirdly appreciative of that fact.

And then he'd woken up, twelve again, and laying in his old room in the house he'd grown up in, surrounded by a silence so deep it rang in his ears.

He shouldn't be surprised that his teammates had clearly picked up on how uncomfortable he was with this place. He'd already said his goodbyes, had already laid these ghosts to rest, and to be surrounded by them once more was jarring, to say the least. And had resulted in more interrupted sleep than he'd experienced in  _months_.

So,  _of course_  Naruto had picked up on how he was feeling, his reluctance to return to this place alone for another night of silence and the faces of the dead invading his dreams.  _Of course_  Sakura had noticed his exhaustion, his stress, even if both could be hidden away from literally everybody else. They were his teammates and they knew him, could read him just as well as he could read them, and there was no way they'd step back and just quietly let him cope with it on his own this time.

They were Team 7. None of them had to do anything alone anymore.

Their solution to this, apparently, was to nonchalantly follow him home like puppies. Not asking for permission, not wondering if it was okay, just  _doing_.

Sasuke was so grateful for them at times, he almost couldn't believe it. He'd done so much wrong in his life, what could he have possibly ever done to deserve them? Deserved or not, though, they were there and he wasn't ever going to push them away again.

And so he said nothing as they walked through the empty streets, just listened to their mundane conversation, their vague ideas of how to add their extra training to what was already planned, and basked in the feeling of not being alone in here anymore.

They didn't hesitate when they reached his home, didn't pause for a second to cross the threshold right behind him and slip off their shoes, to follow him into the kitchen with the bags they were carrying, to put things away without even asking for direction, already relatively familiar with how he organized things, as if they'd been here countless times before instead of this being the first time they'd ever been invited in.

They didn't hesitate to follow him up into his room, to roll out extra futons and blankets onto the floor and to bed down for the night. Didn't hesitate, didn't question, didn't even seem to look at each other to reach an agreement. Just did, like it was nothing, like it was obvious, because Sasuke was alone and uncomfortable in this place and they had the ability to help him not be.

Really, he might never admit to such a thing aloud, even on pain of death, but he truly did love his team. He might not feel like he deserved them now but he sure as hell wouldn't stop trying until he did.

.

* * *

.

Umino Iruka loved teaching.

As a child, he'd had dreams of becoming the next Hokage, just like every other kid. He had watched on, far away and crowded on all sides, even perched upon his father's shoulders, as the hat was passed from Sandaime to Yondaime, had felt the elation of the entire village surge like a crashing tidal wave as every single voice rose together in a unified cheer. So many people had been lost to the war but in that one shining moment, all around him, there'd been nothing but joy for the future.

He'd dreamed of that moment, again and again. To him, so far away, the figures of the past and future Hokage had been so small, barely even visible, but the very  _presence_  of them had been overwhelming. They were the strongest of the village, their greatest protectors, their last defense. And Iruka had  _wanted_  that, more badly than he'd ever wanted anything before in his life.

And then the Kyuubi attacked the village and his entire world crumbled to ash.

He'd been lost, then. Had stumbled around in a mire of anger and resentment and grief so overwhelming it seemed to choke the very life from him, leeching it away slowly, so different from the suddenness of his parents' loss.

The Sandaime had been the one to pull him out of that darkness, in the end. Had shown him how to find the light still inside him, his Will of Fire doused to mere embers but still burning ever on.

It had reignited his vigor, and the loneliness of coming back to an empty home every day only made him all the more determined to stand in the same spot the Yondaime once had, to have the entire village raise their voices in joy around him, for him,  _with_  him.

Of course, the years weren't always kind and tended to carry with them a number of hard lessons. Iruka was a good shinobi, with many talents and many prospects, but it didn't take long to realize that he'd likely never be a  _great_  one. He just wasn't built for it, really, didn't have the raw power, the large reserves or precise control, the inarguable genius. Oh, he was smart, could ace any written test, could make sound strategies, could infiltrate and interrogate and trap with the best of them, but he'd never match up to a Nara, especially not a motivated one. He wouldn't ever match up to Gai or Kakashi or any number of jounin in terms of strength and skill.

He'd never be the strongest of their village, their greatest protector, their last defense.

It had been a hard truth to swallow and he'd spent months bouncing from department to department, knowing he had the skills necessary to find a place in them but not wanting to because that would mean  _giving up_ , would mean accepting that the dream he'd had for so long really was out of his reach, and he didn't want to do that.

And then he'd accepted a mission to help as an aide at the Academy, filling in for a woman who'd taken a few months of maternity leave, and everything had seemed to click into place for him.

It wasn't all great things, of course. The children were rowdy and loud and hard to corral. They acted out, refused to listen, slept through his lectures, fought over stupid and petty things. For the first few weeks, his mind seemed to be made up of nothing but a litany of endless apologies to his own former teachers, for the things he'd done and everything he'd put them through.

(He'd actually sent each and every one of them a personalized basket of goods, and though he'd never actually said the words out loud, he knew they understood by the smug smirks they graced him with every time he saw them.)

At first it had seemed almost thankless, almost worthless, because these kids clearly weren't learning anything from him. He didn't have the ability to get them to sit and listen and actually  _pay attention,_ not like other teachers he had seen, and no amount of advice or observation seemed to change that.

And then his class had graduated, and he'd seen the proud smiles of those who'd received their headbands, had seen the disappointment mingled with determination on those that had failed, and had felt a flicker of pride within himself. He may not have contributed much, but he'd still done something, had had a hand in helping to shape these young boys and girls, and that was an achievement.

And then, a few months after that brief stint at the Academy had ended, he'd been working the Mission Assignment Desk and had been absolutely  _floored_  when not one but two teams of the class he'd worked with had walked in, all of them proudly wearing chunin vests. They weren't just students anymore, weren't just children with dreams of being shinobi, they  _were_  shinobi, and he'd  _helped_  with that.

The next time a mission came through for a stint at the Academy, he'd snapped it up without hesitation, determinedly ignoring the Hokage's knowing looks. And it had seemed easier than the last time, to get the kids situated, to get them settled in for lessons. There were always the outliers, the troublemakers, the slackers, but where last time he'd had no clue what to do with them, this time around he handled them better, quicker.

Soon enough, he was taking mission after mission at the Academy until he found himself there almost constantly. It wasn't until the Hokage finally made a comment that the realization had dawned on him. He was no longer bouncing between departments, indecisive and desolate with the idea of settling on something. He'd already settled and it had been painless, hadn't hurt him at all, and there was no regret in it, not even when he'd tentatively prodded at his feelings on the matter.

The next year he'd been given his own class, assigned to the Academy permanently and taken off the active missions roster, though he still helped with the Mission Assignment Desk as often as he could get away with, if only to catch glimpses of the kids he'd sent forward into their careers, to see how they grew even outside of his reach. The Hokage seemed to understand and, as long as his primary focus was the children under his direct tutelage, the old man never begrudged him an afternoon or two a week.

Iruka had been all set, excited for his own class, his chance to say that he'd done more than just contributed a bit of help in shaping the future of their forces but that he'd had a direct hand in it. He didn't know how he could've ever thought such a job was thankless.

And then the Kyuubi container had entered his classroom, garbed in dirty and worn clothes, face smudged, shoulders hunched protectively but bright eyes almost defiant when they'd met his own.

Iruka was ashamed to admit that, at first, he'd turned a bit of a blind eye to the mistreatment. It wasn't out of malice or anything, even through his grief he was able to realize that Naruto was a  _child_  and, even in his darkest mindset, Iruka very much doubted that he'd ever be able to harm a child. But beyond that, he wasn't quite sure how to act. Because, child or not, he was still housing the Kyuubi, the very monster that still frequented Iruka's worst nightmares, destroying his home and snatching his parents away from him, killing so many including their Hokage and leaving destruction and death and rage in its wake.

So, he'd mostly done his best to ignore the boy. To teach his class as best he could, including Naruto, without ever really focusing on him. And for awhile, it seemed to work. The boy was quiet, unsure, worked not to draw attention to himself if he could help it and seemed utterly content with going ignored.

And then, suddenly, it changed. Suddenly, Naruto was acting out, talking back, distracting the class in any way that he could, playing pranks near constantly, to the point where Iruka was ready to tear his own hair out, completely unsure of how to handle such a situation.

His colleagues had suggested severe punishments and instant expulsion and Iruka had been taken aback because, yes, it was annoying and disrupting but surely such extreme actions were unnecessary? And then they'd laughed and told him how they'd punished the boy themselves, almost seemed to  _brag_  about it, and Iruka had felt sick, genuinely sick, with them and with himself. Because he might not have done those things to the boy personally but, by turning a blind eye as he had, he might as well have.

It was no wonder he was acting out the way he was. He might smile constantly but that didn't mean he was happy. And if he was going to be punished harshly, if he was going to be hated by everyone even when he'd done nothing to deserve it, then he  _should_  deserve it. He should be hated on his own merits, should be hated for reasons he actually knew and understood.

It had been hard, at first, to ignore his still lingering misgivings about the Kyuubi and focus only on Naruto, but had quickly become easier. He was a rambunctious kid who was seemingly full to the brim with energy, but he was also bright when given the chance, always had a ready smile for anyone who truly needed it, no matter how he was treated. He was a good kid, when you looked past all the mischief, and he deserved his chance at reaching his dreams just as much as any of the other kids in his class.

Iruka tried as hard as he could to level the playing field, to ensure that Naruto spent his days in class rather than running about or sitting in detentions he hadn't even earned. As he grew more and more fond of the boy, he had to work not to show favoritism, because doing so would not only be unfair but would surely cost him control of the other students immediately.

He watched as Naruto failed his exam, again and again and again, and his heart ached for the boy. He wanted to give him this, to just hand the Hitai-ate over and pat him on the head, but that would likely be the fastest way to get him killed. Iruka never wanted to fail his students but he wanted to send them on unprepared even less.

He'd always known that Naruto could be a good shinobi, though, had seen that potential in him even when he'd been doing his best to ignore him. It would only be a matter of time, would only take a few more teachers besides himself actually giving him a chance, and he'd excel, Iruka was sure of it.

And was proven correct when Naruto had learned an  _jounin-level_  jutsu in  _hours_  and had then used it to defeat a traitorous chunin single-handed.

Iruka wasn't lying when he'd said that Naruto was Naruto, not the Kyuubi, and that he was one of the best students Iruka had ever had. Tying his Hitai-ate around Naruto's forehead, Iruka had never been more proud of a graduating student, had never been more excited to watch a student's journey through the ranks, to watch their career as they grew into a fine shinobi.

Iruka might have had to settle for being a  _good_  shinobi but, without a doubt, Naruto would be a  _great_  one.

And so he could admit to being a bit restless as he waited for the last of the recently graduated teams to come in, even as he blatantly ignored the amused glances the Sandaime continued to throw his way. Teams 8 and 10 had already come by to pick up a mission, all of them looking proud in their own ways to have passed their final tests to officially become genin under their jounin sensei. At least, until they were informed just what kind of mission it was they'd be accepting (and really, Iruka went over mission ranks and what they entailed every year, how was it still always such a surprise to these kids?) when they all slumped and began to grumble and drag their feet, which was always amusing to watch.

It was mid-afternoon now, though, and there'd still been no sign of Team 7. Kakashi had officially passed them so it wasn't like he could go back on that without a solid and inarguable reason. Iruka wouldn't be surprised if he refused to take his position as teacher seriously but he still had certain responsibilities he had to bow to, one of which was taking his students on D-rank missions, and he couldn't skip out of those without receiving a reprimand, not unless he had legitimate reasons.

So, where were they? He only had a short while left on his shift and he really was hoping to see all of his kids before he was sent home for the night.

Almost as if summoned by the thought, Team 7 entered the room, which in turn went startlingly and abruptly silent. Not that Iruka could blame anyone, with his own jaw hanging open the way that it was. Because the Team 7 before him now was  _not_  the same Team 7 he'd assigned just two days ago.

He wanted to blame it on the outfits, since they'd all changed into something more appropriate than the bright, eye-catching ensembles they'd worn previously (and he wanted to be proud of that, he  _did_ , but it was still so strange to see Naruto wearing something that could actually be called  _subtle_ , it was almost wrong) but, for some inexplicable reason, he knew that wasn't it. Oh, he could see the others around him take in the physical details and brush it off as nothing more than that, even as they gave approving nods towards Kakashi for seemingly inspiring, or ordering, such a change. But Iruka could tell there was more to it.

Maybe it was in the way they stood, lined up before the Desk, comfortable with their side by side proximity. There were no glares thrown between Naruto and Sasuke, no posturing or fighting. Sakura stood to the far left instead of between them, seemingly confident in their ability to get along without a buffer. And what was more, she stood with  _Naruto_  between her and Sasuke and didn't even seem bothered by it, like she couldn't care less that she wasn't standing as close to the Uchiha heir as she could manage.

Maybe it was all of this combined with how scruffy they appeared, all smudged in dust and dirt, clearly tired from a hard training session but standing tall and proud despite that, refusing to waiver.

These three didn't look like Academy kids or even freshly graduated genin. No, they looked like  _shinobi_.

And then the spell was broken as Naruto grinned, wide and exuberant, and shouted out, "Hey, Iruka-sensei! Hey, Jiji! Got any cool missions for us? Something with princesses and a lot of fights!"

Sakura rolled her eyes as Sasuke scoffed, Kakashi sighing in exasperation from behind the pages of his book (and,  _really_ , in front of  _children_?), but the Hokage only chuckled, long-used to the boy's lack of respect and quite fond of it, regardless.

Still, long-used to and fond of it or not, Iruka couldn't just let it pass without comment. Naruto was supposed to be  _professional_. What if there'd been a client in the room? "Naruto! Don't talk that way to the Hokage! Address him with respect!"

Naruto grinned, cheeky, as mischief lit up his eyes, and Iruka had to resist the urge to bury his face in his hands. He'd just made it worse, hadn't he? "You're absolutely right, Iruka-sensei! Got any cool missions for us, Jiji- _sama_?"

Sighs rang out throughout the room, some annoyed but most reluctantly amused, and Iruka gave it up for a loss. For now. Naruto was pretty solidly set in his ways and, really, dubbing the Hokage with such an affectionate nickname  _was_  his way of showing respect. Pushing the issue now would only result in the boy digging in his heels and fighting back. To most, that would probably result in pranks. For Iruka, it would most likely result in headaches he didn't need.

"I'm afraid we're fresh out of princess rescue missions," the Hokage announced gravely, eyes bright with humor when Naruto made a disappointed sound, "but we do have  _a_  rescue mission, in a manner of speaking."

Iruka wasn't sure if he'd call it  _that_. If anything, freeing the thing would probably count more as rescuing it than returning it to its owner. But then again, for the amount they were being regularly paid, and for a D-rank at that? Without the cat being physically abused, it was worth it.

"It appears that Madam Shijimi's cat has escaped and gotten lost in the village. She's understandably very worried and would like her dear pet returned to her as quickly as possible." The Sandaime extracted a scroll from the pile before him, checking the contents quickly before passing it over to a patiently waiting Sakura. "Do you think the three of you are up for it?"

Iruka had to hold in a snort when all three cast the Hokage bland looks, because three genin against a  _cat_? Of course they were up for it.

He could admit to feeling a bit bad. That cat was the devil, not that he could blame it for wanting to desperately hold on to its freedom, and it was extremely unlikely that they'd be able to catch it any time soon or without injury. The thing might be pampered, but it was also smart, and quick, and  _vicious_.

Kakashi hummed as the mission scroll was passed back to him, tucking it into his pocket without even sparing it a cursory glance, and Iruka had to resist the urge to throttle the man. "I'm surprised this mission wasn't already picked up. Surely it would be a perfect fit for Team 8?"

"Ah, Kurenai decided to start them off a bit easier, it seems. I'm afraid most of the ideal missions go to those who show up in time to receive them." The last was said with a pointed glance at first the jounin and then the clock on the wall, announcing that it was just after two in the afternoon. Kakashi just shrugged back, unrepentant, and Iruka may highly respect him but he was fairly sure he'd never actually  _like_  him.

"Maa, it's fine. This mission is perfect. Isn't it, kids?"

The three genin looked supremely unimpressed, with both the mission and their teacher, but surprisingly said nothing in complaint. Iruka would've expecting a few grumbles at least, especially with Naruto in the room, and yet they all looked perfectly willing to submit and carry out the mission, even if they didn't exactly look  _happy_  about it.

"Are you sure?" Iruka couldn't help but ask, his caretaking nature overpowering his professionalism for a moment. Because, really, he wasn't lying when he said they looked like they'd just had a hard training session. "This isn't the easiest mission and all three of you look like you've already had a long day."

His words had the opposite affect he'd intended. Instead of taking notice of their own states or admitting that they may be tired, they all straightened up impossibly taller, looking almost insulted at the very idea of throwing in the towel before they'd even started.

"No way!" Naruto objected, scowling. "We've got this mission in the bag, no question about it, dattebayo!"

"Hn."

"Really, Iruka-sensei, there's no need to worry," Sakura smiled, though it looked a little strained around the edges. "We can handle it."

For a moment, he almost pushed the issue, because genin or not they were still  _kids_ , had been his students only a short few days ago. But then he stopped and took in their determined expressions and just couldn't bring himself to doubt them. They were working hard, harder than any other team so far, to achieve their dreams, to grow stronger, and he just couldn't stand in the way of that, not now.

So instead, he took a deep breath and graced them with an approving smile. "If you're sure."

They nodded back to him as one (And wasn't that so strange? What could have possibly happened in such a short amount of time that could've turned the veritable ticking time bomb that was Team 7 into this?), then to the Hokage, and then turned to be led out by their sensei without another word beyond Naruto's shouted farewell.

Iruka wasn't sure how he felt about it, really. Most progressed slowly, maturing and growing in such a way that he could follow along even from the sidelines. Team 7, though, seemed to have jumped ahead in terms of maturity. In Naruto's case, maybe that could be explained away by what had happened with Mizuki, but the other two?

Iruka couldn't deny being confused and, if he was honest with himself, a little suspicious.

But he was also more proud of his students then he could express with words. He knew, without a doubt, that they truly would someday be  _great_.

.

* * *

.

Catching Tora was beyond easy, even with how tired Sakura and Sasuke obviously were.

Naruto's healing and stamina had taken care of the majority of his soreness, leaving him almost completely refreshed and ready to go. Sakura had used her healing techniques on herself and Sasuke but they didn't have a bijuu in their gut to replenish their energy. Still, they hadn't complained or slowed down once, just as determined to finish the mission as they were to train themselves back up to a respectable level.

Honestly, the morning session truly had been  _hell_ , Kakashi-sensei hadn't been exaggerating. Naruto was a stamina freak, always had been, and even he had had to fight to keep going. He had no idea how Bushy Brows did it every day, with such enthusiasm, but he definitely had Naruto's respect for it.

Iruka-sensei's comment had been a bit of a letdown, as Naruto remembered once more that, here, they were nothing more than recently graduated genin, not heroes of the Fourth War who'd gone toe to toe with an actual god. It had been a long time indeed that Iruka had looked at Naruto, or any of them, like that. Like he wasn't sure if they could do it, like he felt the need to step in and protect them, like they were  _children_.

Naruto didn't blame him for it and was actually kind of grateful, because back in this time he'd had so few people who would actually go out of their way to look out for him like that, but it was disheartening all the same. Because they  _weren't_  children and they  _could_  do it.  _Would_  do it, no matter what it took. They were shinobi now, adults by law, and even if they hadn't had their eighteen-year-old minds, they still wouldn't have needed to be coddled like civilian kids.

Iruka didn't mean it like that in any way, wanted only to make sure that the ones he cared about were safe, that the students he watched grow could really handle what they were given, but it felt like they were being coddled. Felt like they were being doubted. And they hated it.

Only one way to change it, though, and that was to prove every one of those assumptions wrong. Which meant acing their missions, training until they dropped, getting strong enough that nobody could question whether or not they could handle something and then getting even stronger than  _that_. It would take a very long time to build up not only the power but also the respect that they'd had before they were sent back but they wouldn't ever stop working towards it.

And that meant catching a cat and returning her to her borderline-abusive owner. Which, as demonic as the thing could act, still left a bit of a bad taste in Naruto's mouth.

Finding Tora was easy. All Naruto had to do was close his eyes and concentrate for an unmoving moment. Any other animal and it wouldn't have been nearly as simple, since most in the village, barring ninken, had a chakra signature so small that it was easily dwarfed by the amount of shinobi around. But Naruto  _knew_  Tora, had dealt with this mission more times than he cared to recount, and that made finding her less of a chore than it otherwise might have been.

After, all it took was a sound strategy, chakra control and patience. Really, compared to how difficult this had been the first time around, it was almost insulting how quickly they had her captured and docile in Naruto's grasp.

Which was another thing that was fairly odd. Naruto was pretty sure Tora had hated him before, had kicked up an unholy racket when he'd briefly been in charge of carrying her back to Hokage Tower, had scratched him so deeply that he would've likely scarred if not for Kurama. This time, though, she seemed to give up as soon as she was in his arms and actually began to _purr_  when he tentatively began to stroke her back.

He shared a incredulous and, frankly, alarmed look with his teammates before the three of them began making their way back, each keeping an eye on the cat just in case this good behavior turned out to be a trick. She might be just a normal cat, but Tora was  _smart_ , scarily so, and none of them would put it past her.

But, no. She stayed calm and content the entire way back, right up until they were standing before the Hokage and on the receiving end of a room full of disbelieving looks once more. It wasn't until Madam Shijimi lunged forward with a squeal, hands grasping insistingly, that Tora seemed to blink back to reality. And while she didn't try to escape again, she dug her claws into Naruto's jacket and shot him a look of such clearly panicked begging that he couldn't do anything but step away from the woman, turning in a bid to keep her separated from her pet.

Silence fell in the room, this time much more oppressive than this morning. Because this wasn't just a client, this was the  _Fire Daimyo's wife_ , and one wrong move could result in a very harsh backlash, reduced funding, reduced missions. Konoha was, arguably, the strongest Hidden Village in the Elemental Nations and, with one misstep, Naruto could plunge them into poverty, even if it was unlikely to last long. Their Daimyo wasn't like the Wind's Daimyo, after all.

If Naruto really had been twelve, that would have been a problem. When he'd truly been this age, he'd had no concept of respect or diplomacy, had done most of his fighting with fists and impassioned yelling, and neither of those things would get him very far at all in this instance, unless it was directly into trouble. But he  _wasn't_  that twelve-year-old kid anymore, not mentally. It was hard, at times, to grasp what that really meant beyond just having a large repertoire of jutsu, insight to future events and a weak, under-trained body.

Naruto may not be able to match most in a fight right now, but that didn't mean he was powerless. He still had months of training under Tsunade and various other department heads.

He could help someone, even if it was just a cat, and he'd never been the type that could turn away from such a thing. Now, how to do it without everyone thinking he'd been replaced by a body-snatcher?

Man, was he glad that Iruka-sensei had seemingly already been sent home.

"Madam Shijimi, you need to calm down," he ordered, arms tightening comfortingly around the feline in his grasp. Tora, obligingly, began to purr once more, loudly enough to clearly be heard throughout the room. The Daimyo's wife looked more gobsmacked than any of the shinobi around her, even those whose control of their expressions had lapsed, and Naruto wasn't sure if it was because of the way he'd spoken to her or because she'd never actually heard her cat purr before.

Either was equally as likely, really.

"Tora doesn't like it when you get too excited with her and handle her roughly. That's why she keeps running away from you. Cats aren't like dogs, they don't respond to stuff like that in a good way. You have to give her space and be gentle with her and she'll come to you."

More silence, and Naruto was beginning to wonder if this had been a really bad spur of the moment decision. A quick glance to the side showed that his teammates were entirely unsurprised by his actions, though exasperated, and Kakashi looked moments away from bashing his head against a wall, but none of them looked disapproving.

In fact, the Hokage didn't, either. Surprised, yes, and just as exasperated as Naruto's teammates, but more than anything he seemed amused by this turn of events and maybe, possibly, just a little bit satisfied, like he'd wanted to do the same for a long while but hadn't been able to.

Which was dumb. He was the  _Hokage_ , and yeah, that meant he had more responsibilities and had to be more careful with his words and actions than anyone else, but it also meant he could be  _less_  careful. There was a stark difference between a genin and the leader of the village addressing the Daimyo's wife with such concerns, after all.

But what was done was done and Naruto could only hope that Madam Shijimi took it in the way it was meant, not as an insult (well, a little as an insult, but mostly because the way she choked the life out of her cat on a regular basis was  _horrifying_ ) but as advice given in goodwill. And that others didn't question this action too much and start looking more closely at Team 7's other decisions. Because that would definitely be a bad thing.

Thankfully, instead of exploding at Naruto in rage, like he'd half expected, the woman instead seemed to gather herself, drawing tall and patting at her robes to be sure everything was in order.

"Oh, my," she simpered, delight on her face, "my little fuzzykins sure has taken a liking to you, hasn't she? I haven't seen her that content in ages!"

_Or ever_ , Naruto thought, but had the self-control not to say.

"What a precious thing! What's your name, dear?"

"Uzumaki Naruto," he introduced, glancing once more at the Hokage before turning his attention solidly at the woman before him. "If you want Tora to stop running away then you can't smother her like that. She really doesn't like it."

"I see, I see, she does seem quite happy with the way you're holding her, don't you, baby? Do you want Mommy to hold you like that, too? Will that keep you from being such a naughty little thing?" She quickly devolved into baby-talk, cooing over the cat even as Naruto gently, hesitantly, handed her over. Surprisingly, Tora remained docile for the most part, though she had tensed in preparation to lunge for escape if her owner decided to strangle her with affection as was usual.

Instead Madam Shijimi maintained a loose grasp, only tight enough to keep the feline in her arms, and seemed overjoyed when Tora remained there without a fight.

"Oh, how lovely! You  _do_  love Mommy, yes you do, yes you do! Thank you so much for retrieving my baby!" The Madam left without a backwards glance, all of her attention focused solidly at heaping gentle affection on the creature in her arms, and Naruto let out a silent sigh of relief.

He was really glad that had gone over as well as it had. He was pretty sure that if Madam Shijimi had been any less vapid than she was, it definitely wouldn't have.

"Very well done," the Hokage remarked as soon as the Daimyo's wife exited the room. Slowly, the surrounding shinobi got back to work, clearly sensing that the spectacle was now over. "As first missions go, you've done an outstanding job."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Sakura demurred as she handed over their mission scroll to be stamped for completion.

"Of course! We're the best team, after all! That mission wasn't hard at all!" Which was true, the mission really had been beyond simple. The last five minutes had been more stressful than any part of the mission had been.

"I see," the Sandaime chuckled good-naturedly, "I hope you'll continue doing such good work in the future, then."

"You bet, Jiji!"

"If that's all, Hokage-sama," Kakashi-sensei cut in, eye curved up in a very obviously fixed smile, "it seems my cute little students need a bit more training if that's how they decide to address  _royalty_."

Oops. Naruto let out a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. He wasn't ashamed, though, and he didn't regret it. Besides, more training couldn't possibly be a bad thing, right now, and by the way Sakura and Sasuke slumped but made no objections, didn't even send Naruto a blaming look, they clearly agreed.

"Very well. I'll see you tomorrow. Do try to arrive at a more respectable time, Kakashi." The order was given absently, more by rote than any expectation that it would be followed, and Kakashi-sensei simply threw out a lazy salute before herding them out of the building, working to keep their pace sedate when he wanted nothing more than to whisk them away from any listening ears.

He managed to hold out until they'd made it back to their training grounds and he'd erected a rudimentary privacy seal. And then he'd kind of just stood there, looking for all the world despairing, before letting out a very long, very tired sigh.

"Really?" He finally asked, hand coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose in a way Naruto decided not to mention made him look exactly like Tsunade-baa-chan. "We're supposed to be fitting in, not drawing attention. That was the  _opposite_  of not drawing attention."

"I don't see what the problem is," Sasuke shrugged when Kakashi-sensei threw a glare his way. "That's exactly something the Dobe would've done, if that hell cat had behaved even half as well before."

He wasn't lying. Though Naruto would've been a lot less respectful about it.

"Besides, this is a good thing!" Sakura added cheerfully. "The Sandaime was clearly happy about it and it ended well, with no hard feelings. In fact, Madam Shijimi even seemed  _pleased_! What's there to complain about?"

Kakashi-sensei was quiet for another moment before his shoulders suddenly slumped. "I give up," he announced. "You three are ridiculous and impossible and I give up."

All three of them traded grins because, really, Kakashi-sensei had known them for  _how_  long now and had actually thought they could still be controlled? Before they could say anything about it, though, their teacher looked up again to meet their eyes, one by one, and they each had to repress a shiver at the barely concealed sadistic joy lighting his eye from the inside out.

That look was pretty reminiscent of Tsunade-baa-chan, too.

"So, if you won't watch your behavior to avoid situations like that, I'll just have to make sure you're too tired to even  _think_  of acting out. Simple solution, right?"

Eager for training they may be, but this might just be a bit more than they could handle.

Still, there was no way they were backing down from a challenge like that. As one, Team 7 stepped forward to meet it, instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iruka kind of took over for this chapter, huh? Hopefully I was able to do him justice!
> 
> I got the job! After two and a half years as a nanny, more or less, working in retail is definitely... different. I am constantly exhausted lmao but I still wanted to take a day off to try and get a chapter out to you guys. Hope it was worth the wait!
> 
> Also, thank you so much to everyone who's commented! I'm not always the best at replying but I read each and every one of them and they mean the world to me! You guys are awesome!


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